A bump in the road
by Meeswa
Summary: Set post movie, Ralph, Vanellope, Felix and Calhoun go out to enjoy some family time. Although the experience goes much different then any of them could have anticipated.
1. Prologue

**Authors Note: Well I've recently fallen into the Wreck-it Ralph fandom, specifically the Turbo side of the fandom and it was only a matter of time before I started writing fics. So without further ado I present my Turbo re-spawn fic! Or the start of it at least. The idea of writing a fic like this had been on my mind for quite awhile, unfortunately I lacked a compelling plot. and then one presented itself to me quite conveniently. I had to write it out it was too good of a idea to waste and here we are. Now I'm trying not to spoil anything here so excuse me if I'm a bit vague but the rating and genre will probably change in the future, still haven't completely decided the whole plot so I'll just be rolling with it mostly.  
**

**And I think the rest of it speaks for itself! or at least it will soon. Enjoy!**

"Hero's duty..." Ralph muttered with some grimace in his voice as he starred up at the gate way to said game. Ralph, Felix, and Vanellope where all standing side by side at the gate way of Hero's duty. Ralph and Vanellope where somewhat jittery in the face of the game, they didn't exactly have the fondest memories of Cybugs. Felix on the other hand showed no fear in front the game despite being one of the smallest there, only a snack to most Cybugs.

"Come on Ralph, no need to be so sour!" Felix piped up cheerily when he noticed the Wreckers grimacing face.

"I still don't see why we had to meet up here instead of SugarRush like usual." Vanellope complained from her vantage point on Ralph's shoulder. You see every Sunday when the arcade was closed all day Ralph, Felix, Calhoun, And Vanellope got together and spent time together, usually in SugarRush. Felix deemed the day "bonding day" and made sure that it was never forgotten. However this Sunday Calhoun had insisted that they meet up in her game this time instead of SugarRush or, Fix-it Felix jr.

Felix wholeheartedly agreed, mostly because he no longer carried a fear for the game since he visited it often to see Calhoun and had somewhat learned how to defend himself from the Cybugs if needed. Ralph on the other hand never wanted to step foot in the game again after last time, and Vanellope sided with him, not wanting to see where the Cybug's that attacked her game came from. However with some persuasion from Felix he eventually got them to agree by telling them that they weren't even going to go near where the Cybug's roamed.

"Let's get this over with." Ralph muttered in response climbing into the tram that would take them into Hero's duty. Felix followed quickly behind positioning himself next to Ralph as the tram slowly began to take off.

"So, whats Hero's Duty like?" Vanellope asked after a few seconds stirring Felix out of his thoughts.

"Oh that's right! You've never been." Felix stated cheerily as usual.

"From what I saw of it? Big jagged rocks everywhere and eery green lighting." Ralph dead panned earning him a whack on the arm and a glare from Felix. Ralph looked down at Felix a bit surprised the look on his face saying "Well I'm right."

"Oh..." Vanellope muttered suddenly looking much less excited.

"That's not all it is though! That's only what Ralph saw, there's plenty of indoor areas too." Felix said trying to cheer Vanellope up.

"Hrmph, I bet there isn't a race track." Vanellope muttered unimpressed, it was obvious she wanted to be in SugarRush right now.

"Well..." Felix replied with a nervous grin catching both Ralph and Vanellope's attention.

"There are buggies that the soldiers sometimes drive around." Felix continued twiddling his thumbs. Vanellope's face immediately lit up as she jumped up to her feet.

"Can I drive one Ralph? Can I, can I can I!" Vanellope squeaked glitching onto his shoulder.

"Absolutely not!" Both Ralph and Felix exclaimed in unison making them briefly glance at each other in confusion before turning their attention back to Vanellope.

"You absolutely cannot young lady! There isn't even a indoor track and those buggies are dangerous." Felix lectured to a once again disappointed looking Vanellope.

"I bet Tammy would let me drive one." Vanellope complained now set on getting behind the wheel of one of the buggies.

"I don't see why not." Came none other then Calhoun's voice from the platform next to them. All three of them turned to look seeing that they had been so caught up in conversation that they hadn't noticed that the tram had come to a stop in Hero's Duty. Calhoun let a small smirk onto her face at their confusion and was about to say something when Vanellope hoped out of the cart grinning from ear to ear as she glitched over to Calhoun.

"Oh Can I Tammy? I really wanna!" Vanellope Asked glitching circles around a very amused looking Calhoun.

"Well I dunno little soldier, do you have your license?" Calhoun asked playfully not really expecting her to pull out a license. Vanellope stopped mid jump and grounded herself again reaching into her hoodie pocket pulling out what looked like a piece of construction paper and showing it to Calhoun. Calhoun chuckled a bit and took the paper from Vanellope's hand and inspected it closely. It was really just a piece of construction paper heavily adorned with glue and glitter the name "Vanellope Von Schweetz" Scribbled in crayon at the bottom a picture of her glued on in the top corner.

"Ralph helped me make it." Vanellope beamed stealing a quick glance at Felix and Ralph who where still sitting in the tram looking a bit dumbfounded.

"Well everything seems in order here Miss, Schweetz." Calhoun replied in fake police officer voice handing back the craft to Vanellope saluting her. Vanellope then saluted Calhoun back and ran back over to the tram and grabbed Ralph's massive hand from his lap.

"Come on lets go now!" Vanellope squeaked.

"Wait, wait hold up young lady." Felix said getting out of the tram.

"Like I said before, those buggies are dangerous and I simply won't allow you to get behind the wheel of one." Felix stated very literally putting his foot down for emphasis.

"They aren't that dangerous." Calhoun stated, she didn't really see why Vanellope wouldn't be allowed to drive, from what she had seen in SugarRush she was pretty good. "The carts she drives back in SugarRush are ten time more dangerous then this, they can't even go above forty and are only for transportation."

"I still don't like it, what if something happens?" Ralph asked warily glancing around himself memories of the last time he had come here flooding back to him.

"Don't get your undies in a knot Wreck-it, the Cybugs are asleep now anyways and they shouldn't wake up unless you decide to go climbing up into tower again." Calhoun jabbed making Ralph frown at her.

"Believe me that's the last thing I plan on doing today." Ralph replied.

"Besides, we have to take a buggie to get to the quarters anyway, may as well let her drive for a bit." Calhoun said casually. Felix sighed defeated.

"Alright, but we have to be careful." Felix reluctantly agreed. "No going off the path, no going over the speed limit, whatever that may be, and certainly no catching air." Felix lectured to Vanellope.

"Yes Sir, Mr, Felix Sir." Vanellope replied giggling a bit. Ralph playfully rolled his eyes and got up from the tram following Calhoun who had started walking and was gesturing for them to come along. They all began walking across the platform Calhoun taking the lead Felix second and Ralph with Vanellope on his shoulder trailing behind. Ralph was right about one thing, All the lights definitely had a green hue to them and to be honest it was kinda creepy. They all kept walking down the corridor for some time until finally they came to steel door which Calhoun promptly opened with a key card and ushered them into, oh look, another long hallway. Felix seemed perfectly relaxed, probably because he knew where he was going. Calhoun looked as relaxed as Calhounly possible, Being programmed for such a high action game she is hardly ever both awake and relaxed at the same time. Ralph and Vanellope on the other hand where perplexed by their surroundings, Ralph showing a bit of grimace, Vanellope showing a bit of fear, this was far off from her usual Sugary surroundings.

"And here we are." Calhoun said jarring everyone out of their thoughts as she opened yet another steel door revealing something that was not another hallway. Inside looked like some sort of hanger, with a assortment of both planes and vehicles two huge garage doors on one side. Felix prayed that when Vanellope got wind that there where planes she wouldn't want to fly one, he was nervous enough about the buggies.

"Right over there, that's mine." Calhoun pointed once they had all gotten inside. Vanellope immediately forgot any fear that she had and bolted to the army green buggy that Calhoun was pointing to making everyone run to catch up with her.

"Wow, its so big!" Vanellope gasped once she reached the buggy everyone else running up behind her.

"Yeah since its not really designed for someone of your size I'll have to get you a booster seat." Calhoun stated as she moved off to the side of the garage to what looked like a tool area Vanellope following closely behind. While Calhoun was retrieving the booster seat Ralph and Felix climbed into the back of the buggie, Ralph having a a few problems, due to the space issue. Eventually he did manage to get into the back seat without breaking anything though, Felix smashed up against his side. A moment later Calhoun and Vanellope returned with a booster seat and Calhoun quickly fastening it down to the drivers seat.

"Now Vanny, I'm gonna give you a quick run down on how to drive one of these things." Calhoun stated as Vanellope hoped into the newly boosted seat immediately grasping onto the steering wheel. Midway through Calhoun's debriefing though Vanellope interrupted her with a problem.

"Um, Tammy?" Vanellope asked a bit nervous.

"Hmm?" Calhoun asked stopping mid sentence.

"How am I gonna reach the pedals?" Vanellope asked wiggling her feet that where in fact very far away from pedals on the floor.

"I was just getting to that, soldier." Calhoun said reaching over and flipping a switch on the dash board. Suddenly the pedals jolted upward and stopped just at just about the right height for Vanellope to reach.

"Oh, neat!" Vanellope said pushing the pedals down a bit with her feet.

"Why would you have pedals that go up like that?" Ralph asked curiously from the back.

"Who cares? This is awesome!" Vanellope said, obviously eager to get out on the road. Calhoun rolled her eyes playfully at Vanellope letting a small grin onto her face.

"These cars are programmed to be prepared for everything, and I mean everything." Calhoun explained moving round front of the buggy and and getting into the passengers seat. After a few more pointers Calhoun deemed Vanellope ready to drive much to Felix's distress, fearing for her safety, she didn't know these roads, and this place was far more dangerous then SugarRush.

"Okay I'm gonna open the doors now, go whenever your ready." Calhoun said grabbing a fob from the Dash board and pressing the big red button on it. The door slowly slid open revealing a harsh rocky landscape only broken by a paved road.

"You sure there will be no Cybugs?" Ralph asked his eyes widening as the door slid completely open and stopped with a loud clank. He suddenly felt very, very small indeed in front of the daunting landscape of Hero's duty.

"100% sure Wreck it." Calhoun calmed. Ralph didn't really seem to hear her as his eyes nervously scanned the landscape looking for anything that moved. Felix noticing Ralph's obvious distress gave him a quick pat on the shoulder before leaning over the center console to give some last minute precautions to Vanellope.

"Now Vanny, Remember this is not a race, and you should NOT treat it like one, slow and steady and no going off the pa-" Felix was cut off when Vanellope suddenly floored it sending Felix flying back into his seat. The buggy speed forward and out of the garage onto the black top as Vanellope let out a playful laugh. Everyone else in the buggy was not quite as amused as Vanellope, even Calhoun looked shocked as Vanellope began to speed down track towards the beacon where the quarters where located.

"Whoa, there soldier!" Calhoun said. "Slow down or you'll hit something!"

Ralph and Felix where too preoccupied with not falling out of the cart to tell Vanellope to slow down, grasping onto anything they could in a attempt to stay grounded.

"I'm not even going that fast." Vanellope complained calmly and did slow down, unfortunately she was still going too fast to stop when she rounded a curb and something jumped out into the road. Time seemed to slow down as everyone trained their eyes on just what had jumped out in front of them. And it looked back, like a deer caught in the headlights he was paralyzed, his eyes, his yellow eyes widened in shock as the car sped towards him. Everyone in the buggy immediately knew who was in front of them, although most of them didn't want to believe it, he was right in front of them, and getting closer. 'How could this happen? he's supposed to be _dead_.' was all any of them had time to think before impact. A shriek of fear was all any of them heard right before a sickening crashing sound and the feel of something under the tires hit. there was a moment of silence everyone too shocked too move. Calhoun was the first to get out immediately looking under the buggy when she did.

"What the _hell_?" Was all the character under the buggy heard before he blacked out from the pain.

Turbo was back.

Somehow, he was back.


	2. C1: An Explanation

**Authors Note: Okay so just a warning: Plot twists ahoy. like I just took the plot and broke it terribly. The only reason I'm even writing this fic is because one morning I came up with this crazy convoluted alternate plot and I decided to start writing it out, which may or may not have been a bad idea. Either way just be ready to basically read my attempts at rewriting Wir. **

Voices, loud annoying voices, and pain, so much pain why wouldn't they just both stop so he could sleep. Slowly despite his best efforts Turbo came into wakefulness the pain only increasing the more he became aware of himself. There was not a spot on his body that didn't ache. Slowly Turbo clenched and unclenched his hand stretching himself a bit too. "Oh good so I'm not paralyzed." Turbo thought to himself a bit sarcastically. He eventually deduced that he was laying on his back in a bed of some sort. Where was he? He didn't remember falling asleep somewhere like here. He didn't remember falling asleep at all...

"Where am I?..." Turbo croaked out voicing his thoughts, his throat felt raw and dehydrated and it hurt just to talk. Suddenly the voices that had begun to sound like voices and not muffled mumbling, stopped. Seconds passed and no one talked. The silence went on for so long that Turbo was contemplating going back to sleep, He was so tired.

"We'll have to decide what to do with him now." Came a low voice from across the room. Wait, Turbo _knew _that voice.

"_Milk my duds, Wreck-it Ralph?"_

"_Yeah who are you the guy that makes the donuts?"_

Turbo's eyes immediately flew open as his entire body tensed. The first thing he was greeted with was a painfully bright light making him wince. Of course he hadn't fallen asleep he had been hit a bloody car and blacked out. Where ever he was he couldn't be safe, nowhere was safe anymore but especially not here. As fast as he could, Turbo pushed himself up into a sitting position despite the pain and turned his head in the direction of where he heard the voices.

Everything was blurry but it looked like he was in some sort of medical word and he definitely saw a orange and red blob that looked like the wrecker, and was that green thing the glitch? Of course it was she was the one who run him over, he remembered seeing her at the wheel! This was bad, so very bad, everything was ruined because he had to jump out on the road at that precise moment, and he was already late as it was who knows how long he had been asleep. Again silence, the only sound Turbo's ragged almost panicky breathing. As his vision adjusted Turbo saw that not only was The glitch there too but also a certain Fix-it Felix and the gun crazy blonde. And they where all starring at him, The glitch looked scared, Felix looked shocked or confused, Ralph and Calhoun however looked angry, so much so that Turbo was beginning to contemplate picking up something to defend himself. Not that he would stand a chance either way.

"No, no, no, no." Turbo muttered over and over slowly becoming louder and louder. He was all but full on panicking now. Everyone seemed to notice this and Calhoun even took a few tentative steps toward him, not really to be comforting though, she had her hand on her holstered gun and had a look of grimace on her face. He tried to back up but as soon as he did he quite literally hit a wall, there was nowhere for him to go. No escape, the door was blocked by the group in front of him and behind him was a faceless wall with no windows, he doubted he could even stand.

"W-Where am I?" Turbo repeated. Ralph's scowl only deepened while Felix put on a nervous smile.

"Well... You're in Hero's Duty." Felix answered slowly and carefully, a more specific answer would have been nice. Turbo contemplated snapping at the handyman, that of course he knew he was in Hero's duty, where else was so gray and gloomy? But he thought better of it.

"Don't tell him anything." Ralph growled making Turbo wince at the hostility in his voice. "If anything he owes us answers!"

"Exactly." Calhoun agreed right before she rather unexpectedly unholstered her gun and pointed it strait at Turbo's face. If it was possible for the small racer to back even farther up against the wall he did his eyes widening to the size of dinner plates.

"Listen runt, I want to know everything, how the hell you're alive and why you're in my game, and if you even have the slightest intention of taking it over I won't hesitate to pull this trigger."Calhoun threatened making Turbo all but lose it.

"No! I swear I wasn't, I was...I..." Turbo yelped stumbling over his own words only making Calhoun's scowl deepen. No one moved to stop her though, They had all agreed before hand to let her handle Turbo when, _if _he woke up, there was some question to if he would survive at first. It was her game after all.

"Listen, no would even know your gone if I pulled this trigger." Calhoun threatened trying to get Turbo to talk other then stuttering, her idea of motivation wasn't exactly as gentle as everyone else's. Turbo muttered something under his breath at the remark making Calhoun raise a eye brow.

"What was that?" Calhoun asked sounding genuinely curious.

"I said: King Candy would." Turbo whispered just loud enough for them all to hear. Calhoun looked genuinely confused at first but quickly composed herself.

"King Candy is you dumbass, or did you really get hit that hard?" Calhoun stated looking unamused. Turbo was beginning to think that, yes, maybe they did hit him that hard considering how much everything hurt and the large amount of bandages on him, not that he was in very good health to begin with...

"You want answers, fine. but I'm not explaining anything at gun point." Turbo responded gaining a bit of courage. Calhoun frowned and she pressed up the gun to Turbo's cheek making the smaller racer wince.

"Might as well comply, Its not like he could do any damage in this state anyway." Felix interjected still looking terrified, but at least having some sense in him. Calhoun glanced back and fourth between Him and Turbo before finally lowering her gun and backing up a bit.

"Fine, get talking." Calhoun growled out leaning against the wall. Turbo took a deep breath very _very _thankful to have the gun away from him, although the wasn't exactly keen on explaining his secrets to anyone, it looked like he didn't have a choice, it was either that or likely getting shot.

"I suppose I'll start at the beginning." Turbo said a bit slowly. "First of all: King Candy isn't me, far from it. He was a actual character in SugarRush before I came along, well, I say character, but he was a glitch, much like _she_ was." Turbo said pointing at Vanellope who was currently hiding half way behind Ralph.

"Only because you made her that way!" Ralph burst out with sudden anger making everyone in the room flinch. Turbo in a burst of courage met returned Ralph's anger right back scowling at him.

"Oh believe me, Wreck it, I could have made it a lot worse, she hardly has a glitch at all. Do you know how-" Turbo cut himself when a red flicker of electricity pulsed through him making every muscle he had tense up, it started out as small flickers but they quickly grew, engulfing all of Turbo's body in red pixels a sickening sizzling sound accompanying, it making everyone gasp in shock. It went on for almost a quarter of a minute much longer the Vanellope's occasional flickers, until it suddenly halted leaving Turbo whole again. As soon as Turbo was freed his body immediately went slack and fell backwards and hitting the wall behind him with a thud. It was moments before he opened his eyes again.

"That's..." Turbo said weakly his eyes but slits. "That's what a glitch could be like, it eats you out from the inside until your nothing but a mess of unusable code. That's why I'm here... I'm _dying_." No one spoke, Vanellope looked more scared then ever, Felix had his gloved hands over his mouth, and Ralph looked quite a bit taken aback his eyes wide. Calhoun was the first to step forward, not even phased by his statement, she was more focused on the safety of her game.

"We saw you glitching while you where asleep, but we never knew-" Felix was cut off by Calhoun.

"That still doesn't explain-" Calhoun was cut off by Turbo.

"Getting to that!" Turbo snapped back the fact that Calhoun had a gun all but forgotten to him. Thankfully she did not pull the gun on him again and backed up again, looking none too pleased though.

"Like I said, King Candy was a glitch, but created like a traditional glitch: A mass of unused code that gained sentience when it shouldn't have. Unlike her" Turbo continued gesturing to Vanellope again. "He was far worse off though, at least you looked like the rest of the characters in SugarRush, King Candy however wasn't so fortunate and with the glitch to boot, well you can imagine how exiled he was from society." Turbo was talking directly to Vanellope now who starred up at him with wide eyes.

"Then why does no one remember him...? from like, before you took over, the all memories from that time where released right? " Vanellope tentatively asked taking Turbo off guard, this was the first time she had talked since he woke up. Turbo grimaced at her if the answer was obvious but answered her question anyway.

"Because I deleted those memories permanently." Turbo answered solemnly glaring daggers at Her. "No one should remember what happened, do you have any idea what kind of state I found him in!?"

"_I don't care that I'm a glitch! I hate it here and I'm leaving!"_

"_Its not going to work, now get down from there before someone sees."_

"_Why should I trust you?! You're just a some gamehopper!"_

Ralph looked unamused at Turbo's outburst scowling at him.

"If you could delete memories, then why did you lock up the Sugarushians memories instead of deleting them?" Ralph asked pointing a accusing finger.

"Because if I ever decided to leave SugarRush for greener pastures I would want it to be able go back to its original state. Not that I expected it to backfire so badly..." Turbo responded calmly, again as if it where obvious. "Now if you would all kindly stop interrupting I would like to get back to the explaining." Ralph rolled his eyes and put his hand down.

"Despite King Candy's unfortunate predicament, he was just the miracle I needed. We where almost identical, Similar body proportions, similar voice, and part of a racing game, just what I needed to have my own game again." Turbo's eyes lit up when he said this giving everyone else in the room a stern reminder that he was still their enemy, and a character that had made Vanellopes life a living hell for years. "So I made a deal with him, that would help both of us. To hold up my end of the deal I did the unachievable, the unthinkable, I merged King Candy and I's code." Turbo said this as if it where the greatest achievement the arcade would ever witness, maybe it was. "We shared the same body, same thoughts, and same goal, to race and rule. Although I'll admit it got a bit annoying a times, especially when he insisted on randomly bursting out into Candy puns... for fifteen years." Turbo said rubbing his temples as if remembering something extremely frustrating.

"Oh my land, how is that even possible?" Felix asked sounding terribly confused and shocked. Turbo rolled his eyes.

"Listen Fix-it, I'd love to sit here and explain the wonders of code to you but I think I'd better finish my story first." Turbo spat. "Now everything was going smoothly for us, that is until, you showed up." Turbo continued glaring daggers at Ralph. Ralph glared them right back but thankfully didn't move to attack him. "So you all know what happened I assume, I'd rather not go into details." Everyone nodded but Ralph who stepped forward and loomed over Turbo.

"Oh I know exactly what happened, you tried to murder both me and Vanellope!" Ralph barked out making Turbo jump back a bit.

"First of all, It wasn't murder the first time, she was in her own game, even with her glitch she would have re-spawned if we had managed to do any damage. All that mattered at that moment was staying concealed, and alive for that matter, a game reset while having two characters linked like that, especially one that didn't even belong, very likely could have been fatal." Turbo growled back sizing up to him best he could.

"That does not change the fact that you tried to _kill_ both me and Vanellope up on Diet Cola mountain!" Ralph retorted looking angrier then ever.

"_I_ didn't try to kill you, King Candy did." Turbo growled wiping Ralph's anger off his face replacing it with genuine confusion. "King Candy's a decent person but don't get me wrong when I say he's absolute idiot. He was _such_ a fucking idiot."

"_I don't need you anymore, I'm the most powerful virus in the arcade!"_

"_Eat. Kill. Reproduce."_

" _You're not in your right mind, The cybug virus is corrupting your code, I know it!"_

"_Eat- Targer spotted. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill."_

"_Of course I am! Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to take care of our little wrecker problem, and you're not going to stop me!"_

"_Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill."_

"_This is madness!"_

"As soon as our code merged with the Cybug's I'm pretty sure King Candy's was corrupted by it, giving into its every will. The worst part was that I was trapped in the same body as him, pushed back by both King Candy and the Cybug virus and forced to watch as he destroyed everything we had worked for." Turbo finished grimly.

"I still don't get it, If you weren't in control, if any of this is even true! Then why did your avatar change to your face repeatedly?" Ralph questioned. Turbo rolled his eyes in response, he never wanted to relive that experience but it seems he would have to.

"I was trying to regain control the whole time, you have no idea. My face would flicker when I actually gained a bit of control, although I never did for long enough to regain control of my facial muscles. Until the end that is." Turbo answered scowling. Everyone knew what he meant by the end, Calhoun and Felix had witnessed first hand him flying into the beacon, how it looked like he was fighting with himself, and later told Vanellope and Ralph about it.

"Both the Cybug virus and King Candy where too interested in the beacon to pay attention to me anymore, unfortunately they where still very strong, and dead set on killing themselves in that cola bug zapper." Turbo spat visibly cringing at the memory.

"Still doesn't explain how the hell you're alive." Calhoun growled out, she was obviously getting impatient.

"I coded myself deep enough into SugarRush that I re-spawned, simple as that." Turbo replied nonchalantly, as if coding where the easiest thing in the world to understand. "Fortunately with little to no complication too, except for the whole you know "slowly dying because my circuits broke" thing. And unfortunately King Candy re-spawned too. Now I haven't been able to look at either of our code but from what I think, the re-spawn got rid of the Cybug coding, thank litwak, and broke the link I had between me and King Candy restoring us to our own bodies and minds. And since I tethered myself only loosely to the game itself and heavily to King Candy, I could leave the game even with this glitch. Unfortunately the whole ordeal was a very rough process, if that's not obvious, and I can only imagine how ill our code must look."

"Hrmph, sounds like King Candy wouldn't miss you, considered the terms you parted on." Calhoun stated. "In fact sounds like he would want you dead." Turbo scoffed at this leaning back into the wall, all this talking was making him very tired, and it was beginning to hurt his throat.

"We re-spawned almost instantly, and its been months since the incident, we've had time to get reacquainted." Turbo answered coolly. "He needed me to fix our glitches, his knowledge of code is hopeless, I tried to teach him but it just wouldn't take. And since there was no chance we could sneak into the code vault in SugarRush, I left to find a game where I could at least get a view on my own code, he agreed too, it was better then standing around slowly dying."

"And Hero's duty was your first choice." Calhoun questioned raising a eye brow.

"No, It wasn't, but I had no choice, it was either Hero's duty or run into the Surge protector." Turbo replied softly, closing his eyes.

"Why are you helping King Candy then?" Came Vanellope's daring voice, she still sounded scared. It would be a lie to say everyone wasn't curious about Turbo's motives, from what they had heard King Candy had wronged Turbo many times. Turbo cracked open his eyes to look at the girl, too tired to put much venom in his gaze.

"That's my own business." Turbo sighed closing his eyes again. "Just take me back to SugarRush. Take me back to King Candy..." Turbo murmured trailing off, he didn't want to stay in Hero's Duty one more moment, Cybugs still scared him to death and the whole time he had been here was a living nightmare. Not to mention he had also over stayed his visit, He promised he would be back in SugarRush over a week ago.

"You are in no spot to be making deman-" Calhoun was cut off when a rather loud snore interrupted her making everyone look in Turbo's direction. He had slumped over onto his side and was now snoring loudly, obviously asleep.

**Sorry for the massive, strange, deviation from the canon plot. **


	3. C2: Don't cross the wires

**Authors Note: It takes me about a few days to write each chapter so you can probably expect an update at least once a week unless something comes up. anyway, on with the plot.**

Ralph was walking down down one of the many long corridors in Hero's duty, specifically the medical wing. After Turbo had unexpectedly fallen asleep yesterday he had slept through the night and all through the next day, and Ralph had been sent to check on him to make sure he hadn't fallen into some sort of coma. Normally Calhoun would have sent one of her soldiers with a medikit powerup, which basically made them a legalized doctor, to check on Turbo, but since they where all trying to keep Turbo's existence a secret only the four of them, and one doctor Calhoun had made sworn secrecy, knew about Turbo. Unfortunately it just so happened that said doctor was busy that day and Ralph had been voted to go and at least make sure Turbo hadn't died or anything.

Ralph didn't really see why the hell they where even keeping him alive, in his mind they where still enemies, and the fact that he had not wronged them since he first woke up wasn't really enough for Ralph to trust him. Ralph finally found the door he was looking for and hastily entered the code to the to unlock it. The room itself wasn't really a traditional hospital room, it was more like a prison cell. No windows, big heavy iron door with a computerized lock, and far far away from anything else. However when Ralph entered, he found that Turbo was not in some sort of comatose state and was sitting up in his bed starring glassily at the wall in front of him. Turbo immediately snapped to attention when he saw that Ralph had entered a scowl making its way onto his lips.

"Wreck-it." Turbo said addressing the rather large figure in the doorway.

"I've been sent to make sure you're not dead or something, and it looks like you aren't, bye." Ralph hastily replied turning around, he wasn't exactly keen on spending time with Turbo if you hadn't figured that out.

"Hold up. I want to know when, _if_, I can go back to SugarRush." Turbo said making Ralph halt in his tracks turning back around to face the gray racer.

"We haven't decided yet, and I don't see one reason why we should let you anywhere near Vanellope's game again, if you're even telling the truth about the whole King Candy thing." Ralph retorted crossing his arms.

"Why would I lie?" Turbo asked simply, still scowling, he was getting impatient.

"Oh I dunno? Maybe to get back into SugarRush so you can reprogram it?!" Ralph replied his voice oozing sarcasm. Turbo glared daggers back at him, this was a new level oh helplessness for him, his fate was completely in the hand of others, and he didn't like it one bit.

"Well what if I'm not lying, what if I just want to see a dear friend who probably thinks I'm dead at this point?" Turbo spat back, the thought of what had become of King Candy had been eating away at him, he had been given a glitch similar to his, if not a bit worse, and he worried for his well being. Ralph scoffed in return.

"Why would he think you dead? you're like a cockroach at this point, averted death twice if not more." Ralph replied leaning against the door frame.

"Because I said I'd be back to SugarRush two weeks ago, and we both knew how dangerous it would be for me to leave. It's only logical." Turbo replied twiddling his thumbs a bit.

"Well another reason we're keeping you here is because you obviously haven't fully recovered yet." Ralph argued. "Can you even stand?" Turbo looked down again, it was true, he hadn't even tried to use his legs since he woke up.

"Well lets find out." Turbo replied slowly shifting himself so his legs dangled off the edge of the bed. "I don't have any broke bones right?" Turbo added looking back up at Ralph.

"Nope. Doctor said you got off relatively easy." Ralph replied relaxing somewhat, he doubted the small racer was suddenly going to attack him, he wasn't stupid after all, Turbo knew that they where his ticket back to SugarRush. Slowly Turbo eased himself off the bed and onto his feet wobbling a bit when he put some weight on them.

"Ooh that kinda hurts, really should have been stretching these instead of sleeping." Turbo hissed out. "How long have I been asleep by the way?" Ralph stole a quick glance at Turbo who has currently starring at the ground in front of him as if it was shark infested waters his legs still wobbling a bit.

"After you got hit you where out for about three days, then when you fell asleep again you slept through the rest of yesterday and through the night." Ralph replied finally closing the door behind him, who knows Turbo's legs maybe fully functioning and he was just faking it, was his reasoning.

"And the time is...?" Turbo questioned, he seemed awfully concerned about the time.

"Just after game hours, so about 7pm." Ralph answered watching the smaller racer stumble up into a actual standing position and taking a few tentative steps forward. His legs seemed to be at least partially functioning, if a bit stiff. While Turbo was stretching his legs he decided he would try to at least do a little persuading maybe he could get Ralph on his side for letting him into SugarRush who knows.

"If we're on the topic of persuading you to let me back into SugarRush: lets say maybe I won't be able to fix myself, and maybe I want to see King Candy before I , die, a, eh, last request so to speak?" Turbo said casually out of the blue. Ralph was a bit taken aback at Turbo's statement. That was about the last thing he expected Turbo to come out with, really he was expecting the cold shoulder and more sarcasm, not a death wish.

"You don't seem too concerned about your, er, condition..." Ralph muttered looking Turbo strait in the eyes for the first time since he came in, he went about his glitch as if it where a joke. Turbo let out a audible sigh looking back down at his feet. It was seconds before he spoke again.

"When you've lived as long and as hard as I have, the thought of your own death is not as intimidating as it used to be." Turbo replied solemnly. "I've escaped it so many times right? And I always bounce back." Turbo added with a small nervous chuckle at the end. "I'm sure I'll be alright.."

Ralph frowned a bit, not because he was angry at Turbo, but because he quite literally in front of dethroned king, someone who had basically lost everything.

"Well... I don't think you'll have to worry about you being trapped here, Calhoun wants you out for one, and Fix-It Felix. Jr doesn't really have anywhere we could keep you, and Vanellope's offering the fungeon..." Ralph said making Turbo raise a eye brow.

"So, you're not planning on executing me?" Turbo asked leaning against the wall for support. Ralph looked back at Turbo a bit shocked, had that really been what he had been thinking they where going to do to him?

"No... Why would we?" Ralph asked simply still looking at Turbo dumbfounded. Turbo just frowned at him.

"Oh you know the whole most wanted character in the arcade, the uh, making your little friend a glitch thing. Responsible for the unplugging of two games and the death of even more charterers. You know, those minor things." Turbo spat back his tone oozing with sarcasm as he scowled at Ralph. The idea honestly hadn't occurred to Ralph or anyone else that knew about Turbo, and if Ralph thought about it he probably did deserve execution. But he wasn't that cruel, and neither was Felix or Vanellope, he wouldn't put it past Calhoun though.

"No you're not getting executing." Ralph repeated. "Although you're likely to be locked up for the rest of your life." Turbo groaned in response lolling his head back in frustration.

"Just kill me if you're going to do that." Turbo responded dramatically. "I don't want to spend another minute in this accursed game." Ralph let out a huffing sound at Turbo's distress, not facing him.

"Just be thankful we didn't leave you on the side of the road." Ralph joked in response grinning a bit to himself. Turbo however did not find the joke that funny and scowled at Ralph still leaning against the wall for support. The conversation then drifted off into silence, neither of them saying a word for quite some time, looking down at the floor and trying to avoid each others gazes. It went on for so long that Ralph was contemplating leaving, he had done his job after all, check on Turbo, done.

"So when do I get to leave then?" Turbo asked snapping Ralph out of his thoughts making him look down at the smaller racer, who was currently giving him a determined scowl.

"Whenever everyone else is ready, and when you're well enough." Ralph replied looking away again. Turbo audibly sighed in annoyance.

"I'm well enough now." Turbo growled out in defiance. "And I won't get any better if you keep me locked up here."  
To emphasize his point Turbo tried to stand up fully without the help of the wall but unfortunately tried to stand up too fast resulting in him crashing back into the wall again hitting his head in the process, his feet collapsing under him.

"See perfectly fine." Turbo muttered sarcastically as he slunk down into a sitting position while Ralph watched with a raised eye brow. Ralph just starred down at Turbo for a few seconds before abruptly turning around and opening the door.

"I think I'll be going now." Ralph said not facing Turbo as he opened the large steel door.

"Wait." Turbo said calling for Ralph to halt, yet again. Ralph turned around looking slightly annoyed.

"What?" Ralph asked frowning a bit.

"I'm hungry." Turbo said blatantly looking up at Ralph, his arms crossed.

"Not my problem." Ralph growled back turning around again. Turbo stood up again this time succeeding and walked over to Ralph his mouth parted in a vicious frown.

"Oh yes it is!" Turbo snapped making Ralph turn around and face him. "You where sent to see if I'm okay right? Well I'm not, haven't eaten in days! And I'm _not_ going to improve if I'm starving!" Turbo continued menacingly, something odd happened him mid rant though, red pixels started flickering down his body but instead of slowing down or tensing up he seemed to only get angrier his voice becoming garbled by the glitch and almost impossible to make out. Ralph instinctively backed up against the door looking at Turbo with wide eyes. The glitch didn't even stop after a few seconds it just kept getting more intense as another factor joined the glitch, Turbo's face kept flickering to his pixelated avatar along with the rest of his body, unlike the last time he had glitched in front of Ralph. The last time Ralph had seen this happen was when he was trying to beat Vanellope's head in, so he didn't exactly take kindly the phenomenon reappearing.

"Calm down for programmers sake!" Ralph shouted over the sound of Turbo's garbled rambling. "Stop glitching!"

"I'm not glitching! I'm not a glitch!" Turbo shouted back his voice varying in tones, even though he was basically at this point a Turbo shaped pile of pixels with his pixelated face slapped on.

"Yes you are! And I'm going to pin you down onto the bed and leave you if you don't calm down!" Ralph growled out trying to grab at Turbo who only dodged his attempts suddenly very mobile.

"Not a glitch! Not a glitch! Not a glitch!" Turbo repeated as he, well, glitched. Suddenly in a bout of speed Ralph caught Turbo in one massive hand and immediately started shaking him violently, trying to shake some sense into him despite the fact that his hand was beginning to flicker with red pixels just by touching Turbo. The shaking seemed to work because Turbo quickly stopped yelling obscenities at Ralph and started yelling at him to put him down his glitching toning down to a few occasional flickers. Ralph hastily dropped the smaller racer, he hoped to hell glitches weren't contagious. Turbo landed on the ground with a thud a few last minute glitches flickering though him before he stopped entirely.

"What the hell was that!" Ralph yelled at Turbo. Turbo however didn't respond to Ralph's question, he didn't even move in the same position he was in when Ralph dropped him, eyes closed.

"Could have at least warned me before you went completely bonkers- Are you even listening? Turbo?" Ralph continued realizing that Turbo wasn't responding at all making him stop yelling for a moment and turn his attention to Turbo's small form that was still splayed on on the floor.

"Turbo...?" Ralph asked again in confusion, leaning down and eyeing him. Suddenly Turbo's eyes flew open as he jolted upward letting out a long sputtering cough.

"HA! Not this time!" Turbo shouted in between coughs, the coughs slowly turning into hysteric laughs. Ralph just looked at the laughing/coughing racer dumbfounded for a second before he remembered what just happened.

"Again, what the hell was that!?" Ralph asked again making the smaller racer turn his attention Ralph. "Are you completely mental?!" Turbo stopped laughing as he looked up at Ralph who was currently looking quite angry.

"That happens sometimes, just one of the joys of having this glitch." Turbo replied his laughter almost instantly fading.

"What do you mean "happens sometimes" You went completely insane on me!" Ralph retorted looming over Turbo.

"Listen I'll explain to you what I think happens, when, and only when, I get some food." Turbo replied looking up at Ralph with determination. "There's gotta be like a cafeteria somewhere around here..." Ralph let out a lengthy sigh and rolled his eyes.

"Fine. But we can't stay for long, get your food, eat, and then leave got it?" Ralph said caving in. Turbo let out large grin onto his face at Ralph's agreement getting to his feet.

"Lead the way then." Turbo replied gesturing to the door with a flick of his wrist. Ralph just rolled his eyes and began opening the door that opened out into the hall. While typing in the lengthy code to unlock the door a sudden thought occurred to Ralph.

"Hey you gonna be able to walk there? Its quite a ways." Ralph questioned as Turbo waiting impatiently behind him.

"I'm fine." Turbo growled out through clenched teeth. Ralph just starred back at him for a second before turning his attention back to the door finally finishing typing in the code letting the door slide open. Ralph tentatively peaked outside the door way into the hall to make sure that no one was around before ushering Turbo out into the hall with him. As they where walking in the direction of the cafeteria Turbo had to almost sprint to keep up with Ralph's long strides which was none to comfortable on his already aching legs. Still he kept up though, mostly because Ralph had noticed his struggled and slowed down a bit. They walked in silence until they finally came to the entrance of the cafeteria.

"Are you sure we won't run into anyone?" Turbo asked looking up at the large door in front of them.

"This place is pretty dead at this time of day, I wouldn't worry." Ralph replied as he shoved open the doorway and looked inside. "Yup coasts clear." Ralph walked into the abandoned cafeteria Turbo following hastily behind.

"Foods over there." Ralph said pointing to a bunch of vending machine like objects adorned with signs that displayed what they dispensed. Turbo nodded in response and immediately raced over to the machines and grabbing a tray for himself while Ralph shuffled over to the nearest table and sat down. The room itself looked much like a regular cafeteria might, long tables parallel to each other, painted white, and there where even a few windows to one side looking out on Hero's Duty's desolate landscape. Pretty soon Turbo returned with a plate of what looked like mashed potatoes, corn, chicken nuggets, and bread, although to Ralph it looked much like vomit, the food in Hero's duty was pretty famous for being piss poor, that's why most of the soldiers that where resident to the game went out to eat. Despite this as soon as Turbo sat down he began digging into his food as if it where of the finest grade making Ralph cringe a bit at his messy eating habits.

"You must have really been hungry." Ralph said making Turbo look up at him runny mashed potato dripping from his chin, his cheeks filled with the stuff giving him the appearance of a gray chipmunk. Turbo hastily swallowed so he could reply to Ralph choking a bit in the process.

"I've been eating nothing but candy for fifteen years, this is a very welcomed change of pace." Turbo replied a bit sourly. If Ralph thought of it, eating candy for fifteen years would get old, especially chocolate, blah.

"Point taken." Ralph muttered. "So wait you promised to explain to me why you suddenly went crazy." Turbo scowled at Ralph rolling his eyes.

"I didn't go crazy there was a glitch in my sense of reality or something." Turbo replied shoving less food into his mouth so he could talk properly. "Which is as good at crazy..." Ralph raised a eye brow at this, so he was sitting next to a attempted murderer and and psychopath, great.

"So let me tell you what I thinks happening with my code, keep in mind this is just my speculation." Turbo continued, he seemed to be in a much better mood after getting some food into him. "Let me start by explaining what the average characters code block looks like." Ralph let out a audible groan, he didn't exactly want to spend the whole evening listening to Turbo rant about code.

"Is that really necessary?" Ralph asked making Turbo frown at him.

"Hey you're the one who asked, and a little explanation is required before I tell you what I thinks happening anyway." Turbo retorted Ralph just rolled his eyes and settled in, accepting his fate. "Most code blocks are comprised of three different types of wires, first: very small wires that reside closer to the outside of block, don't really do anything too important and break easily, most older characters have broken a few of these over the years, making them technically a glitch, although it has not side effects. Doesn't mean you should leave them unfixed though."

"Does that mean I'm a glitch?" Ralph asked curiosity overflowing him.

"Probably, you're like what thirtyish years old? Yeah probably. Code just suddenly breaks sometimes. The hazards of leaving these unattended is that they may break some of the more important circuits over time." Turbo replied.

"You're one to talk, Mr. broke his sense of reality." Ralph muttered in response.

"Oh believe me I think I have more broken wires then I have working at this point." Turbo replied somewhat sarcastically twiddling his spoon in between two fingers. "Anyway, the second type of wires is the middle strength ones, hah, I pulled plenty of these out while making your little friend a glitch." Ralph immediately sat up from the table and loomed over Turbo his mouth parted in a vicious frown.

"I don't want to hear anything about how you ruined Vanellope's life." Ralph growled out making Turbo shrink down into his seat, eyes wide.

"Eh, I didn't pull out _too_ many of them if that's any consolation." Turbo stammered out nervously. Ralph just glared at him for a second more before sitting back down again.

"Whatever, just, finish telling me about your glitch." Ralph growled out through clenched teeth. Turbo starred at him in confusion for a moment, he was honestly expecting to get his face beat in right then and there.

"Well anyway..." Turbo continued. "The medium wires are closer to the center of code block and are much harder to break then the small ones. If you break one or two of these the game will mark you officially as a glitch and it'll show too. Its best to get these fixed soon as possible for the sake of your game and yourself. Although they don't really do that much damage, you see what causes a glitch is when a broken wire has electricity flow through it, but since the wire is broken the electricity gets out and shocks other parts of the code block. They don't have the kind of power to really do damage, but It'll show visible in the affected character." Ralph just sat and scowled, he wasn't exactly keen on hearing about how Turbo basically broke Vanellope.

"So what happened to you then?" Ralph asked looking at Turbo briefly.

"Just getting to that." Turbo replied a bit muffled by the bread that he was currently stuffing in his mouth. "Lastly there are the wires that reside at the center of the code block. Big thick things that are actually quite hard to break, and needless to say they are very important. If you do manage to break one when you glitch it will be far from painless and sometimes it'll cause you to go a bit mental when you glitch because the shock that these cords carry are so big that they shock the whole system either leaving you a bit dazed or not thinking strait, believe me I know, unfortunately." Turbo finished sighing a bit. "I'm pretty sure I've broken more then one of those."

"Alright... I think I got most of that." Ralph replied. "How the hell do you know all that anyway?" Turbo looked up at Ralph a bit surprised that he would ask but quickly answered.

"I didn't spend those fifteen years between the unplugging of my own game and the plugging in of SugarRush doing nothing. And before you ask it was a very dark time for me and I'd rather not go into it" Turbo replied a bit grimly. True Ralph was curious about what kind of things Turbo had been up to but he stayed silent starring at the table under him.

"Oh and on a lighter note-" Turbo cut himself off when he suddenly felt something pressed up against his helmet making him stop dead in his tracks. Ralph noticed Turbo stop talking and looked up to see what was happening only to see none other then Calhoun pressing a gun to Turbo's over sized noggin.

"What is that?" Turbo asked without moving, something told Ralph Turbo had a feeling it was a gun of some sort.

"What is he doing out of his cell?" Calhoun questioned looking at Ralph. From the voice Turbo figured out that it was Calhoun at least, although that wasn't exactly a calming thought to him.

"He was hungry so I brought him here." Ralph replied nervously, he didn't exactly want to get on Calhoun's bad side. Suddenly much to Ralph's surprise Calhoun broke into a grin and pulled the gun away from Turbo's head much to said racers relief.

"Well good you brought him out, I hate walking down into the medical wing, smells like expired medicine." Calhoun said still smiling, Ralph would never understand how she managed to shift moods so easily.

"And why are you visiting exactly?" Turbo asked slowly turning to face Calhoun, he sounded mostly confused but there was a small trace of hope in his voice. Calhoun grinned broadly before replying.

"We're going to SugarRush."


	4. C3: I bid you welcome to the station

**Authors**** note: First of all in response to that person who pointed out that Ralph was acting very civil to Turbo let me try and explain. Ralph is trying to be as cool around Turbo as he possible can because he's seen Turbo's condition and I think the whole point of the movie was that Ralph is actually a very nice guy and although Ralph has every right to hate Turbo, he doesn't want to see him dead. You see Ralph knows the strength he posses and if he where to just punch Turbo once too hard, it just might kill him in his weakened state, Ralph is far from liking Turbo but he doesn't want the guilt of directly killing someone on his conscious, even Turbo. I hope that is a sufficient explanation. Any way on with the story, took a bit longer then usual but here it is, I think the rest speaks for itself.**

As soon as Calhoun gave the good news to Turbo said racer had insisted there wasn't a second to lose and that they should get going immediately, to which Calhoun had no objections, frankly she wanted Turbo out of her game as soon as possible too. Turbo became a little less enthusiastic though when Calhoun brought out a pair of handcuffs and snapped them into place on his wrists.

"Is that really necessary?" Turbo grumbled looking down at the handcuffs that where constricting a bit painfully around his wrists. They had moved out into the hall now, again taking extra care to make sure no one was around.

"We have to take you through game central station and I'm not risking anything." Calhoun replied sternly. Ralph who had been standing just behind Turbo nodded his head in agreement.

"I agree, we can't risk just bringing him out into game central station without some sort of precaution." Ralph replied making Turbo roll his eyes in annoyance. Hadn't they figured out that he was trying to get to SugarRush and not any other game? Well come to think of it they probably did think he was lying on more then one account.

"Fine- but wait game central station? I can't just walk through there! they'll, they'll." Turbo stuttered out realization hitting him, his legend of game jumping was well known, and many characters knew first hand what he looked like. He very well couldn't just walk through game central station, especially at this hour when it was most crowded.

"Tear you limb from limb from limb? Have you burned at the stake? Or maybe rip your very code in half? Most likely." Calhoun teased cruelly, much to Turbo's distress, it had always been one of his greatest concerns being found out, it sort of came with being known as a long dead game jumping psychopath and spending decades hiding. Calhoun just rolled her eyes at Turbo's so blatant fear.

"Oh relax will you? I have a disguise planned." Calhoun scoffed at Turbo's visible distress as she pulled out something that looked like a black cloth from seemingly out of nowhere. "Here wear this." Calhoun tossed the black cloth to Turbo who struggled to catch it with his cuffed hands, almost dropping it. Upon closer inspection the cloth turned out to be some sort of cloak like thing with a built in hood, and thankfully it didn't look too over sized. Turbo's strange proportions had always been a bit of a hindrance to him whenever it came to cloths, other then the ones that where programmed for him that is.

"Are you sure this will hide me?" Turbo asked still sounding wary, perhaps they didn't have to leave right now and could maybe wait until later tonight? He was all for getting back to King Candy as fast as he could even as a prisoner, but safety was of higher priority.

"Not completely but it'll help, and we only have to make a quick dash across the station, no one will notice you short stuff." Calhoun replied playing with her holstered gun a bit while Turbo fiddled to get the cloak in his hand over his head, which was extremely difficult considering the handcuffs.

"Okay but I- wait short stuff?" Turbo replied stopping messing with the cloak for a moment to address the insult frowning at Calhoun.

"Yes." Calhoun replied taking the cloak from Turbo's hands and shoving it over his head roughly. "Short stuff." Turbo stumbled a bit at the impact but held his ground, maybe it would be best to just take a few insults. Surprisingly the cloak did hide Turbo's appearance rather well, it was quite long on him so all of Turbo's body was hidden the cowl of the cloak hiding all his facial features except for his eyes, which glowed involuntarily.

"Except for the eye thing, nobody would notice you." Ralph said mulling over Turbo's appearance carefully. Turbo just frowned, although no one could see it.

"Well I can't do anything about it." Turbo snapped back. "Its not like I have a on/off switch."

"Well maybe you do, ever checked?" Calhoun joked not really expecting a serious answer.

"Yes." Turbo replied hunching over a bit. "This is far from the first time they've caused a problem." Calhoun raised a eye brow at the seriousness in Turbo's voice, but hesitated to ask exactly what kind of problems they had caused.

"Well just don't look up too much and I doubt anyone will notice, besides you can't be the only character with glowing yellow eyes." Ralph replied casually, leaning against the wall. Turbo just let out a annoyed sigh, he was still nervous about being seen, being found out by everyone in game central station wasn't exactly one of his priorities. What if someone stepped on the back of his cloak, or what if he started glitching? Aside from his more powerful glitches he also glitched painlessly sometimes, just a few flickers of red pixels that distorted his voice and made a bit of noise, maybe froze him up for a bit. And he wasn't sure he could hold those in for the whole walk through game central station. And oh code he didn't even want to think about what might happen if he started glitching seriously. Thankfully before he could dwell on the subject for long Calhoun began talking.

"We should get going then, told Felix and Vannellope we'd meet them in SugarRush half an hour ago." Calhoun said as she swiftly turned around and began walking down the corridor making both Turbo and Ralph run to catch up with her. They walked in silence for quite awhile, the only sound Calhoun's metal boots clacking on the floor. They eventually came to a metal door and Calhoun quickly swiped her key card in the slot next to said door letting it slid open with swish revealing a small garage like room. The room itself contained a few transport buggies lined up side to side and other then that it was painfully bare. Calhoun lead the two of them over to her buggy which was painted a bit different then the rest, the others where blue, hers was green. Turbo noticed this.

"I hope you wiped the blood off." Turbo muttered somewhat sarcastically eying the vehicle with great distaste. The comment made both Ralph and Calhoun turn to him in confusion looking down on Turbo with wide eyes until realization hit. They had run him over in this car, and Turbo was still covered with many painful gashes and bruises to help him remember the experience, not to mention he was developing a bit of a limp from being on his feet so much so soon. Ralph still looked confused, maybe realization only hit Calhoun, the wrecker wasn't exactly known for being the brightest.

"whadda you mean cleaned the blood off...?" Ralph asked curiously looking back and fourth between Turbo and the buggy. Turbo just rolled his eyes in annoyance, he was going to have to say it wasn't he.

"I'm pretty sure you ran me over with this thing, remember?" Turbo spat back still keeping a wary eye on the car, maybe he should have just shut up and got in the damn thing. Ralph looked wide eyed back at Turbo and then back at the car.

"Oh yeah... eh well you still have to get in it." Ralph replied a bit awkwardly managing a crippled smile. Turbo glared at Ralph in return.

"I am _never _afraid of getting in any kind of car." Turbo spat back making Ralph look back at him in confusion. Although while Turbo was saying this he still kept a wary gaze on Calhoun's buggy, his expression just hinting at fear.

"I wasn't saying that you're afraid-" Ralph was cut off by Calhoun in a desperate attempt to change the subject

"I can assure you that the blood was cleaned off, and now if you two ladies are done arguing we are late." Calhoun said sternly catching both Ralph and Turbo's attention. She sounded completely serious too, which made Turbo wonder exactly how much blood there was. Calhoun then hoped into the drivers seat of her buggy and began starting it up making both Ralph and Turbo hurry to get in with her for fear that she might drive off without them, Calhoun hated being late and Ralph wouldn't put it past her to start driving off in pure spite. Ralph situated himself in the passenger seat next to Calhoun while Turbo scurried into the back seat. As soon as the large garage door in front of them was open Calhoun speed off making even Ralph who had taken this ride several times in the past few days jump a bit. It made Turbo jump even more, he hadn't been in any kind of car for months on end, and while he would usually revel in the feel of the engine revving to life under him, it startled him a bit this time, although he would certainly deny that he had ever been startled by any sort car if anyone ever had the guts to ask him, racing was in his code, well what was left of it at least.

As soon as they where outside the garage Turbo stopped cringing and looked upward and around himself only to be greeted with, oh look, more gray with maybe a bit more green then inside. Still it was a nice change from the cold, gloomy halls inside that screamed depression. He saw why most characters in Hero's Duty didn't like spending time in there own game, outside Cybugs, inside gloomy eerily lit halls and terrible food, I mean _really _terrible food, Turbo was beginning to regret eating anything as the bumpy roads tossed him around. The farther Calhoun got down the road the more Turbo could see, and he found out that he had been staying right under the beacon, which apparently had many quarters and rooms in it. Calhoun drove in silence not taking her eyes off the road, which Turbo was very thankful for considering there where many sharp turns and he didn't exactly fancy getting into another car wreck. Ralph however decided to try and strike up a conversation with Turbo, well I say conversation but it was really another safety briefing.

"So we'll get to a garage in a sec and then once we take the tram we'll be at game central station." Ralph explained looking back at Turbo who was currently laying down in the back seat glowering at everything that he saw. Turbo didn't reply he just hunched over a bit more and wrapped the cloak even tighter around himself in a attempt to tell Ralph that he wasn't interested in exactly _how_ they where going to get to SugarRush, as long as they got him there. Ralph just frowned at Turbo and turned his attention back to the road in front of them, it was hopeless to even try with him.

It was quite cold in Hero's duty, probably due to the fact that there was no sun but it was likely mostly programming. The Cybugs never seemed to mind though, when they where awake that is and thankfully they where only awake during game hours. Turbo on the other hand minded very much wrapping as much as the cloak he could around himself, the glitches weren't helping either, every time he did glitch it felt like it made him more vulnerable to the cold, it felt like every layer of clothing he had just disappeared for a moment letting all the cold air in.

It didn't take long for them to get to the garage Ralph had told Turbo about, in only a few minutes too which was impressive considering that the beacon and entrance the game central station where at the complete opposite sides of Hero's duty. Calhoun parked the buggy neatly as soon as she pulled into the garage wasting no time when she hoped out of her seat and began walking towards the exit. Ralph had little to no trouble keeping up with Calhoun, Turbo on the other hand struggled to just get out of the buggy his hurried actions only slowing him down more.

"Slow down!" Turbo yelled out while he yanked the buggy's door handle that he was beginning to suspect was locked. Calhoun turned around frowning and hastily produced a key fob from one of her pockets and pressed one of the buttons on it making the door Turbo was currently struggling with make a distinctive clicking sound. Sure enough the door opened as soon as Turbo tried it, unfortunately the door also opened rather suddenly because he was yanking at it so hard sending a very startled Turbo crashing down onto the pavement below him.

"Now hurry up!" Calhoun barked at Turbo who was currently laying face down, his knees burning with pain because they had just taken the blunt of his fall.

"I'm trying!" Turbo snapped back his voice muffled by the pavement. Turbo _was_ trying to get up but he wasn't exactly succeeding, the handcuffs where really quite restricting and despite his best efforts he couldn't get to his feet. Calhoun raised a eye brow at Turbo's attempts but made no sign of helping him while Ralph watched the scene from behind her. Turbo let out a defeated sigh and stopped struggling, slowly lifting his head so he could see Ralph and Calhoun.

"Would one of you mind helping me up?" Turbo ground out through clenched teeth, this was not his day was it. Ralph rolled his eyes and walked over to Turbo lifting to his feet with one massive hand. Turbo stumbled a bit but did manage stay on his feet this time.

"You're welcome." Ralph scoffed out somewhat sarcastically at Turbo who was currently shuffling towards Calhoun.

It didn't take long for them to get to the tram considering how much of a hurry they where in and before Turbo knew it they where off to game central station, putting along somewhat slowly down the track. Both Ralph and Calhoun had taken seats on the same side of the cart they where riding in neither of them wanting to be that close to Turbo, what with his somewhat contagious glitching and and how dangerous he was, at least according to them, he wasn't exactly someone you would want to be in close proximity to. Meanwhile Turbo was hunched over in the seat across from them looking at nothing in particular, he was beginning to get quite nervous though.

There was a pit forming in the bottom of his stomach at the thought of actually walking through game central station, something that he hadn't done in years and years. You see there are actually plenty of somewhat secret passages in game central station and whenever Turbo needed to move from game to game he used one of those, much safer then going out in the open. As far as he knew only the surge protectors and himself knew about them, although it wasn't entirely out of the question that other characters knew about them too. Turbo always dismissed the idea though, he spent years living in those hidden halls and if someone else was too he would know, although there was that one time he swore he saw a cat like figure down the hall from him...

Turbo was jarred out of his thoughts by the tram suddenly grinding to halt signifying that they had arrived.

"No time to waste, lets move." Calhoun ordered as she stepped out of the tram Turbo and Ralph followed her hastily, Calhoun was actually very motivating. There was a large gate way in front of them that undoubtedly lead to game central station. Suddenly before they walked out into the full view of game central station Calhoun abruptly turned around and faced Turbo making said small racer stop dead in his tracks and look up at her.

"Yes?" Turbo asked once he composed himself his voice hinting at annoyance. Calhoun just scowled at him.

"I don't want you trying anything you hear me? Rule number one is if you even try to run off I won't hesitate to shoot. Got it?" Calhoun lectured harshly leaning down so she could be eye level with Turbo.

"Sure..." Turbo replied a bit nervously, being threatened to be shot wasn't exactly something to help put him at ease.

"And keep your head low, don't look at anyone, don't talk to anyone, and whatever you don't glitch." Calhoun continued putting emphasis on the last two words. Turbo was about to complain that he didn't need this kind of lecturing but he stopped himself when he heard the last bit.

"Don't glitch?" Turbo scoffed back a glitch conveniently flickering through him mid sentence. "You think I have that much control over this?" Turbo continued his voice hinting at anger making Calhoun raise a eye brow.

"Yes. Don't glitch, or at least try not to." Calhoun replied casually getting back up on her feet. Turbo glared daggers at her, this wasn't just something he could control and to think she took it so lightly only made him glitch more, which tended to happen when his adrenaline ran high. After that quick lecture they began walking again, Turbo could already hear the many voices mingling with each other and only a few more steps would bring him out into the open for all to see. Calhoun and Ralph where walking on either side of him as he walked out into the full view of game central station and Turbo made the mistake of looking upwards as soon as he entered. The light level in Hero's duty was very low compared to the bright lights of game central station and looking up so quickly startled him making him immediately look back down hiding his eyes. Unfortunately something else happened too, a few faint glitches flickered over Turbo's form in his shock. Calhoun as soon as she saw immediately leaned downward and grabbed Turbo by the collar of his cloak yanking him upward to face her.

"I said don't glitch." Calhoun hissed through clenched teeth as she starred down at a very shocked looking Turbo, a few last minute red pixels flickering over his face.

"S-Sorry." Turbo stuttered out in a attempt to say something, anything. Calhoun scowled back.

"Don't be sorry, just don't glitch." Calhoun responded letting go of Turbo's collar. Turbo stumbled back into a standing position almost bumping into Ralph who was currently a bit confused since he hadn't even seen Turbo glitch, although he decided not to ask and just go along with it. After Turbo had regained his bearings he took a quick look around, yup this was definitely game central station and there where characters _everywhere. _The place was packed to the brim with mingling game characters from older games to newer games alike, and thankfully no one was looking directly at him.

"Lets go." Calhoun ordered as she began walking forward into the the crowd. Turbo and Ralph hastily followed her fearing being separated.

The whole time they where weaving through crowd of game central station Turbo was doing his best to stay unnoticed by keeping his head low and not looking anyone in the eye, which was a easy task for him considering he wasn't exactly on the taller side and unless he was directly looking upward all he saw was usually shoes anyway. That wasn't the hard part though, you see its possible to hold in a glitch for a small amount of time especially since you can feel one coming. It starts as a small tingling feeling but quickly escalates to something everyone else can see, but holding in a glitch in is not something I would recommend. Its a very unpleasant experience and you could compare it to holding your breath for long amounts of time, or perhaps holding in a hiccup. If you're lucky it'll go away but most of the time it'll just come out twice as worse, not to mention there was also a high probability of passing out if you held it in for too long without release. It wasn't long before Turbo felt a glitch coming on and they weren't even half way across the station yet. Still he held it in for as long as he could, there where literally characters only feet from him now they where sure to notice if he started glitching. It felt similar to holding your breath underwater, it felt like drowning honestly and Turbo was getting desperate, he knew he would pass out if he held it for much longer.

"Here we are!" Turbo heard Calhoun say from somewhere above him making him look up. Sure enough when he looked up he saw a large gate way with the name "SugarRush" above it. He still had to hold out on glitching though, he had to wait until they where out of sight. All three of them hurried towards the gate not wasting a second when they ran through it. Turbo was the last to go through the gate, unfortunately his passage was far from problem free, as soon as he walked through the gate a familiar buzzing noise sounded making Turbo stop in his tracks a red grid appearing over the gate to accompany the sound.

"W-what?" Turbo asked confused looking every which way. Both Ralph and Calhoun turned around at the buzzing sound looking equally concerned as Turbo. All the sudden a blue flash appeared next to Turbo the small bit of electricity quickly forming into the shape of none other then the Surge Protector.

"Security check." the Surge protector said not even looking away from his clip board as he spoke to Turbo. "We're getting some strange readings off you, name please." Turbo looked up dumbfounded at the Surge Protector, of course he should have known they would stop him he was practically a free range virus at this point his code was so jumbled and he cursed himself for his stupidity, he should have insisted that they use the hidden tunnels.

"I, ehh." Turbo sputtered out feeling light headed. That was the last straw, he simply couldn't hold it in anymore, he glitched, bunches of red code flickering through his entire form distorting his mindless stutters. This took the Surge Protector off guard as he looked down at Turbo in shock.

"What the...?" The Surge protector asked his eyes wide as Turbo continued to flicker red his body freezing up somewhat.

"He's with us." Calhoun quickly interjected Ralph right behind her. Before the Surge Protector could even reply Calhoun grabbed Turbo's arm and dragged him off into the gateway to SugarRush Ralph following quickly behind as they ran off. There wasn't a tram for SugarRush, you either had to walk it or bring your own transportation and since Ralph, Turbo, and Calhoun couldn't all fit on her flying skateboard of sorts they ran. Calhoun and Ralph kept a steady pace dragging a still glitching Turbo behind them, It looked like holding in the glitches for so long brought about one of the much more powerful ones and it was showing no signs of stopping either. Finally after they had decided that the Surge Protector wasn't following them Ralph and Calhoun stopped running, they must be at least half way through the cord now. As soon as he stopped being dragged Turbo collapsed into a sputtering red pixelated mess, panting for breath.

"That could have gone better." Ralph gasped out winded, he never was much of a runner. Turbo tried to respond but all that came out was a distorted wheezing sound the glitching slowing down to a few occasional flickers but still quite painful for him.

"I said don't glitch." Calhoun growled out at Turbo who was only now regaining awareness of his surroundings.

"Does it look like I have control over this?" Turbo spat back with as much venom in his voice as he could muster. Ralph rolled his eyes and their bickering, honestly he was starting to get annoyed at how much the both of them liked to pick fights with each other. Calhoun just scowled at Turbo in response and leaned up against the side of the tunnel waiting for both Ralph and Turbo to catch their breath. Turbo stopped glitching entirely after a few more seconds and got to his feet looking back the way they came.

"Are you sure no ones following us?" Turbo asked looking warily down the copper laced tunnel that they where standing in.

"They would have found us already if they where." Ralph replied looking down the tunnel too.

"Lets move then, no time to waste." Calhoun ordered as she began walking forward again.

It didn't take long for them to get to SugarRush at their hastened pace, and before they knew it their eyes where assaulted by the cheerfully bright colors of the game as they stepped onto the rainbow bridge.

"Well, I'm home. Or as close to home as I'll ever get" Turbo thought to himself.


	5. C4: Off to see the King

**Not much to say here other I've noticed my chapters getting progressively longer, like before I start writing** **I**** have a set amount of events that I want to happen in the chapter and then I'll add smaller events while writing it and stretch everything out longer then it needs to be. I almost split this chapter into two because of it. Well anyway here's chapter four, It was pretty late when I wrote most of this so it might be a bit off in some places.**

"Where are they? I just don't understand." Felix muttered pacing back and fourth. Vanellope who was standing not but a few feet from the worrying handy man rolled her eyes, he could be so critical sometimes.

"I'm sure they are just a bit late, no need to be nervous." Vanellope comforted walking over to the handy man placing a hand on his shoulder. Felix stopped pacing as soon as he felt the touch and looked at Vanellope still looking worried.

"I just can't help it Vanny, you know how dangerous he is." Felix responded looking back down nervously. "What if something happened in game central station?" Vanellope let out a sigh.

"He didn't seem that dangerous when I saw him in Hero's duty, just really beat up and tired." Vanellope responded. They where standing at the finish line to the royal race way where Calhoun had said she would meet them, but by now she was almost a hour late.

"He may not be dangerous right now, but have you forgotten all the things he's done?" Felix argued tapping his foot anxiously. Felix was right, Turbo was a extremely dangerous criminal and it would be a lie to say Vanellope was not also nervous about him being around, she still hadn't forgotten the tunnel incident when Turbo rammed his car into hers, it wasn't exactly one of her fondest memories. Not to mention that apparently King Candy was also running around somewhere in her game too.

"Well how about we drive up to the rainbow bridge then, see if their held up there." Vanellope offered, getting behind the wheel definitely sounded better then waiting around here. Felix took the offer into consideration, doing something, anything, did sound better then waiting around here.

"Alright, I can't see the harm in it." Felix agreed speaking slowly. Vanellope let a small smile onto her face at his agreement.

"No time to waste then." Vanellope said somewhat enthusiastically glitching over to her kart that was parked just at the edge of the track and getting in. Felix hastily followed her getting onto the kart and sitting on top the of spoiler.

"Ready when you are." Vanellope said starting up her engine and giving Felix a side long glance. Felix nodded his head and grasped onto the spoiler below him for support. Vanellope took that as a go sign and pressed down on the gas sending them speeding down the track. It always took Felix some getting used to riding in any sort of vehicle, he just wasn't programmed for these speeds. Vanellope on the other hand never felt more in her element then when she was behind the wheel speeding down the track and up over hills.

"O-oh my land! Could you maybe slow down?" Felix shouted over the sound of the wind, holding onto the kart with a death grip. Vanellope rolled her eyes and slowed down somewhat, complying for Felix's sake. They where at the rainbow bridge now and they had just passed the come back soon sign when Vanellope saw three distinct figures at the top of the bridge, that must be them! Vanellope immediately skidded off to the side of the bridge just barely not falling off making Felix let out a startled yelp.

"Vanny, w-what are you doing?" Felix said looking around confused the kart parked just feet from falling of the bridge.

"Come on that's gotta be them!" Vanellope shouted getting out of her kart and running up to bridge. Felix soon spotted them and followed Vanellope hastily trying to keep up with her glitching. Sure enough when they got close enough to see it was Calhoun, Ralph and Turbo all accounted for that stood on the top of the bridge. They didn't recognize Turbo right away though due to the cloak that was hiding him.

"There you are!" Felix yelled out once they where in ear shot of each other. Calhoun and Ralph waved at them as both Vanellope and Felix skidded to a halt in front of the group.

"Sorry about taking so long." Calhoun apologized smiling down at the Handy man. Felix smiled back, seeing his wife always seemed to take his worries away. The usual chit chat commenced between the two as Ralph and Vanellope gave each other a friendly greeting as well.

Turbo however so far hadn't even acknowledged Felix and Vanellope's presence and was starring out past them and out at the landscape of SugarRush, this used to be his home you know, the first place he had really called home since, well, you know. Turbo's eyes darted across the landscape of SugarRush looking for something in particular, a cave to be precise, located at the base of diet cola mountain. That would most likely be where King Candy was, it was where the two of them had hidden for the past few months after all. He probably couldn't see it from this angle, but he tried anyway. Hell why was he even looking for it now, they where just going to lock him in the fungeon and let him slowly dissolve into useless code, he wouldn't even have a chance of finding King Candy. Turbo was jarred out of his thoughts by something poking him on his shoulder. Turbo immediately looked to see what was poking him only to find Ralph giving him a light tap on his shoulder with one massive finger

"You alright in there?" Ralph asked peering at him somewhat curiously. There was only a flash of confusion in Turbo's expression before it turned cold again.

"Fine." Turbo replied his voice hinting at hostility making the the wrecker retreat his hand. At this point everyone else was looking at him too, Turbo glanced somewhat warily at each of them before hiding his face with the cloak hood again, it still felt like their gazes where burning into his back though.

"So I've heard I'm going to be staying in the _Fungeon_. Programmers why didn't you rename it." Turbo muttered out looking at his feet, naming the dungeon the fungeon was King Candy's idea and Turbo had always been against it, but he let King Candy make most of the decisions anyway, he needed to maintain the look of a fun and flamboyant king and Turbo didn't exactly have what it takes to do that. Vanellope watched Turbo carefully, hesitant to confirm his suspicions.

"That's yet to be decided, and I would have thought you would be pleased to hear that I hadn't changed it." Vanellope replied raising a eye brow. Turbo scowled at her, he wouldn't be pleased by anything _she _did.

"It was King Candy's idea, not mine." Turbo spat back glaring at her. Turbo heard Calhoun scoff from above him making him look up at her.

"Can you just drop the whole King Candy thing, I know you're lying about it gain leverage." Calhoun remarked cruelly. Turbo glared daggers at her a faint glitch flickering over his face momentarily, she was really beginning to piss him off. However before Turbo could defend himself Vanellope interrupted.

"There's no proof of either of your statements, we'll just have to find out for ourselves." Vanellope stated catching everyone's attention, this was her game, and she wasn't going to let anyone intimidate her into doing anything, she was a president for litwaks sake.

"I dunno know Vanny, the whole King Candy thing is pretty preposterous..." Ralph offered scratching the back of his head awkwardly. Turbo immediately turned around and glared at Ralph his teeth quite literally bared.

"And what do you know about code Wreck-it? Not decades worth I bet!" Turbo retorted a larger glitch flickering over him. Ralph scowled right back, it was getting really hard not to beat Turbo's face in.

Before Ralph could act though Vanellope interrupted.

"Enough! This is my game and I will not have such bickering." Vanellope yelled making everyone especially Felix, who had been standing/hiding behind Vanellope for the whole conversation, jump. "We will give Turbo a chance to prove himself, besides if King Candy is real Turbo's probably the only one who can lead us to him without searching the whole of SugaRush, and the last thing I want is another game jumper running around unchecked." Everyone stared wide eyed at Vanellope surprised by how forward she was being. Turbo felt like correcting Vanellope that King Candy never even left SugarRush, but thought better of it.

"Turbo." Vanellope said catching Turbo's attention. "You are going to lead us to King Candy." Felix raised a hand to protest but was cut off by Vanellope giving him harsh a side long glance shutting him up. Turbo was about to agree but stopped himself, If he lead them to King Candy that would mean both of them in the fungeon instead of just him. Still, he needed to find King Candy, it had been far too long.

"Very well." Turbo replied speaking slowly, he hated to to admit it but it was either complying with them or worse. He had two choices, refuse and be locked up, or accept and be locked up with company, even if that company was a candy pun spewing maniac, or at least that's all Turbo thought would happen. Vanellope let a grin onto her face at Turbo's agreement.

"Excellent." She replied quite happily. "Lead the way." Ralph, Calhoun, and Felix didn't object to Vanellope's plan, but they where still nervous, and suspicious at that. Turbo reasoned that the best place to start looking would be the cave that he was looking for earlier, but before they set off he had a request.

"Can you get this hood and handcuffs off me before we begin walking?" Turbo asked holding out his still tightly cuffed hands for emphasis.

"You're keeping the cuffs." Calhoun immediately retorted scowling down at Turbo. Turbo just rolled his eyes, maybe he should have just asked to get the cloak taken off.

"We can take the cloak off, All the SugarRush racers are either at the royal race way, palace, or out. The place is dead at this hour." Vanellope replied. Turbo grinned a bit, well he kind of liked the look the cloak was quite cumbersome and he didn't fancy dragging it all through SugarRush. However when Turbo started taking it off he forgot something, the hand cuffs. Short story short Turbo got stuck midway through taking off the cloak and ended up with it half off and stuck on his head his arms somewhere up there too. Turbo tried pulling his arms down, no give. Even though Turbo couldn't see he knew everyone had just watched him do that, he let out a lengthy sigh in defeat.

"Would someone mind getting this thing off me?" Turbo sighed out his voice muffled by the fabric, and he swore he heard a snicker right before Ralph grabbed the top of his cloak with one massive hand and yanked upward. Now that would be all well and good if he didn't go upward with the cloak too. Turbo let out a muffled yelping sound as he was unexpectedly dragged upward, Vanellope wasn't even trying to hide her snickers anymore as she watched Turbo kick his legs frantically in mid air until he finally slid out of the cloak and landed on his back with a thud.

"Well now that that's sorted out, we can get going." Vanellope said giggling between words. If Turbo could have he would have jumped over there and wrung that little glitches neck, how dare she laugh at him. Thankfully all he managed to do was push himself up into a sitting position and glare at her menacingly. Apparently Vanellope wasn't the only one who had gotten amusement out of his humiliation because when Turbo looked around everyone else was doing their best to hold back laughs. Turbo's scowl only deepened as he glared at all of them, a bright red glitch flickering over him and his entire body shifting rather violently to his pixelated form between glitches. It was quite a menacing sight really and everyone immediately stooped sniggering and starred at Turbo wide eyed when they saw him glitching, Ralph looking the most concerned. Hell they didn't just look concerned each of and everyone of them looked scared, even Calhoun. Turbo stopped glitching entirely after a few seconds but they where all still starring at him fearfully. And Turbo starred back looking at each of their faces, they still feared him, even after all these months. Turbo wasn't sure wither or not to be pleased or horrified with himself, was he really that fear inducing?

Turbo trudged down a dirt track somewhere at the base of Cola mountain scanning every land mark around him, he was sure that he knew the path to the cave that he had been staying in with King Candy, but he seemed to be a bit lost at the moment. Vanellope and Ralph where walking just behind him, Felix and Calhoun having gone to the palace to await their return. They had been walking for quite awhile now and Vanellope was beginning to suspect that Turbo didn't know where he was going.

"Are you sure you're not lost?" Vanellope asked her voice hinting at impatience. Turbo let out a annoyed sigh, of course he knew where he was going it was just taking some time that's all.

"Of Course." Was all Turbo said though, keeping his eyes forward. Vanellope rolled her eyes but didn't push any farther. They walked in silence for a few more moments the only sound their footsteps on the chocolate dirt and Ralph was about to point out that he was pretty sure they where walking in circles when Turbo interrupted him.

"Aha!" Turbo yelled out suddenly bolting forward into the Candy Cane bushes taking everyone by surprise. "I think I've found it!" Vanellope immediately followed Turbo into the bushes not hesitating a second where as Ralph stood there starring at the bushes where they had both disappeared into for a moment before hesitantly following, not wanting to lose them. Because of his bulk Ralph hated moving around in small spaces and he wasn't exactly looking forward to trudging through dense candied foliage. Turbo made his way through the candy cane branches trying his best not to trip Vanellope following closely behind until finally the bushes came to a end and Turbo jumped out into a clearing. Vanellope popped out of the bushes shortly after Turbo looking around the area with wide eyes. It was a rather large clearing surrounded by dense foliage the towering side of diet cola mountain on one side.

"There!" Turbo exclaimed pointing at the base of the mountain a small ditch just barely visible, nothing but a mere cranny in the side of the mountain. Turbo seemed quite happy with himself and he was about to make his way to the cave when Vanellope grabbed the back of his collar taking him quite off guard.

"What the? Get off of me!" Turbo snapped looking back at her with malice in his eyes. Vanellope didn't move still keeping a hold on Turbo's collar knowing that he couldn't do anything because of the cuffs.

"Where Ralph?" Vanellope asked looking around quite calmly seeming oblivious to the fact that she was holding onto the most dangerous character in the arcade.

"Here!" Ralph replied stumbling out of the bushes covered in candied leaves. "Sorry I got caught in some vines." Vanellope nodded in return and let go of Turbo's collar much to said racers relief, he was none too happy though glaring at her angrily, he was bigger then her but not by much, just enough to gain height on her.

"That it?" Ralph asked looking out over the large clearing to the side of the mountain, brushing the sticky candy leafs off his himself. Turbo nodded in return.

"Yes, and it would be best if you two stayed back here." Turbo responded keeping his gaze on the cave, if King Candy was in there he probably hadn't heard them yet Turbo knew from experience that you couldn't hear jack from inside that cave, not to mention that they where still pretty far away.

"What? No absolutely not." Ralph retorted frowning. "We can't just let you run off handcuffs or not." Turbo rolled his eyes in annoyance, they had to make everything harder didn't they.

"I won't go in the cave so you'll still be able to see me, and if King Candy is somewhere around here he'll run away the second he sees you all." Turbo reasoned glaring at Ralph. Ralph scowled back and was about to retort when Vanellope interrupted.

"Let him go Ralph." Vanellope ordered stepping into the conversation. Ralph looked at Vanellope in disbelief for a second that she could trust him so readily.

"We can't just let him-" Ralph was cut off by Vanellope.

"This is my game and I say he can go." Vanellope responded her gaze unwavering as she looked up at Ralph who was easily ten times her size. Ralph looked at her like he was going to retort but caved in mid way letting out a lengthy sigh.

"Fine, but he has to stay in our sight." Ralph complied crossing his arms. Vanellope nodded in return and turned to Turbo.

"We'll wait behind those bushes while you go over there." Vanellope instructed to Turbo who was watching her with a raised eye brow, strange that she had been so trusting of him.

Turbo obeyed none the less and began creeping up towards the cave Vanellope and Ralph moving into some bushes next to the cave so they could get a better view. Vanellope hid rather well in the candied foliage, Ralph however wasn't so fortunate and was pretty obvious, maybe you wouldn't see him at a glance but if you paid attention to the spot then he was a dead give away. Turbo continued anyway hoping that if King Candy was around he wouldn't notice Ralph.

Turbo slowly walked towards the cave entrance being strangely careful, well it was really more of a hole in the ground slightly elevated by the side of the mountain, but it worked as shelter. Turbo reached the cave/hole and peered downward into it, it was dark, but Turbo knew that if you went farther in there where other small holes the provided light.

"Candy?" Turbo called just barely a whisper. No answer. Turbo frowned and tried a bit louder. "King Candy are you in there?" Still no reply and Turbo was about to try again when a faint shuffling noise interrupted him making him stop dead in his tracks.

"Turbo?" Came a extremely wary voice from the darkness. Turbo immediately recognized that voice and was about to respond eagerly when he was suddenly jumped on a purple blur out of the darkness.

"Ca-" Was all Turbo had time to say before he was pinned down by none other then King Candy and pulled into a very forceful hug.

"Where where you? I thought you had been captured or worse, I never should have let you leave like that!" King Candy rambled clutching onto a very startled Turbo who was now only just beginning to register what had happened. King Candy looked in similar condition to Turbo minus his injuries from the accident, obviously had been living away from society, cloths battered and torn in some place and above all he was definitely the very same King Candy that every knew and probably hated.

"I-I'm fine." Turbo stuttered out in response as King Candy clung onto him. "Really I'm alright." King Candy pulled away from Turbo at this and looked him over carefully, looking more then concerned.

"No you're not! Where did all these bandages and bruises come from and-" King Candy paused for a second and lifted up Turbo's cuffed hands that he had just only noticed. "Why are you in these? are you-" King Candy cut himself off looking over Turbo and around the area. It didn't take long for King Candy to spot Ralph who was waiting not a few yards away in the bushes, and Vanellope at that who had peaked her head out for a better view.

King Candy's eyes widened as he starred at them in shock and before Turbo could even respond King Candy let out a terrified shout and leaped off of him darting back into the darkness of the cave. Turbo didn't even turn back to see if Ralph and Vanellope where coming over before he hastily got to his feet and followed King Candy down into the darkness.

"Wait!" Turbo shouted into the cave careful not to trip. He vaguely heard Ralph calling for him to stop but ignored it wholly and continued through the darkness. "Candy!" Turbo shouted again with no answer. After only a few more seconds of running Turbo came to a lighter, larger part of the cave that he knew well. It was mostly circular and completely made of the hard chocolate dirt the rest of the ground in SugarRush was made of. A few holes in the ceiling provided light and there where a few meek signs that someone had been living there, but most importantly there was King Candy in the center of it looking extremely distressed.

"ohohonono!" King Candy stuttered when he saw Turbo watching him fearfully, he was all but panicking now.

"Listen, calm down!" Turbo tried to comfort rushing over to King Candy who only backed up farther away from him.

"What are they doing here?" King Candy almost whined backing up against the wall as Turbo crept closer to him.

"Your panicking isn't going to solve anything." Turbo hissed through clenched teeth slowly cornering him. King Candy had been under enough stress already what with the glitch business, Turbo being gone for far too long with no word, and seeing seeing that they had apparently been found out or worse sent him over the edge. Before Turbo could get another word out King Candy bolted from the corner he was in and ran across the room and frantically tried climbing out one of the holes in the ceiling, it was a vain attempt of course due to them being on, well, the ceiling.

"We have to get out of here!" King Candy yelled desperately trying to climb up the wall. Turbo immediately ran over towards King Candy and tried to drag him off the wall reaching down and grabbing onto his kicking feet somehow managing to catch both of them even with the cuffs. Turbo started trying to drag King Candy down from the wall.

"Calm down or I swear I'll sit on you!" Turbo growled out through clenched teeth as he pulled King Candy down onto his stomach with a thud. King Candy continued to struggle though, kicking with his feet and clawing at the ground with his hands. Unfortunately for Turbo he had forgotten something when he grabbed onto the King, you see all this walking had been a bit hard on one of his legs and he had started to show a limp half way through the walk to this cave, although neither Vanellope or Ralph commented on it. And just like that as soon as King Candy pulled Turbo came crashing down due to his bad leg.

"AGGHH!" Turbo shrieked out, the pain was quite unbearable. King Candy kept kicking and scraping at the ground though, he had driven himself into a extreme state of panic, and didn't even register that he was causing Turbo pain. Conveniently just as this was happened both Ralph and Vanellope came rushing through the entrance only to see the strange scene of Turbo trying to pin down a panicking King Candy. Despite his leg Turbo was still trying very hard to gain some leverage on King Candy and was currently climbing up onto his back pushing him down having not have noticed Ralph and Vanellope yet. Turbo did eventually manage to get himself up into a sitting position on top of King Candy.

"I told you I'd sit on you." Turbo gasped out his leg searing with pain at this point. King Candy had somewhat calmed down and looked up at Turbo with wide eyes, he hadn't noticed the pair at the door either.

"I..I.." Was all King Candy said before his gaze shifted to the entrance. "Ohhhnonono!" And just like that King Candy was scrapping and kicking again trying to get away from Ralph and Vanellope who where currently starring at the pair with wide eyes too shocked or confused to say anything. Turbo at this point had noticed Ralph and Vanellope but didn't do anything more then give them a glance of acknowledgement. Turbo was about to shout at King Candy to calm down again when suddenly in a bout of strength King Candy pushed Turbo off himself and shoved him behind him making Turbo let out a pained yelp in response, landing on his injured leg. Standing up King Candy turned to face Ralph and Vanellope bearing a vicious frown.

"I won't allow you to hurt him further." King Candy growled through clenched teeth at the pair in the entrance. Ralph and Vanellope starred back at him quite shocked, Ralph being the first to react.

"We're not going to hu-" Ralph was cut off by King Candy.

"Gum drops and pop you aren't!" King Candy retorted pointing a accusing finger at them. "There isn't a spot on him that's not bruised!" Turbo recovered from falling onto his leg and looked up at the scene in front of him startled.

"I am fine, no ones hurting me." Turbo interjected looking up at King Candy, even though he wasn't really all that fine. King Candy gave Turbo a sympathetic side long glance before turning his attention back to the pair at the entrance. Vanellope suddenly stepped forward and faced King Candy looking more annoyed then anything else, but there was a slight twinge of fear in her expression too at facing her enemy.

"We are not going to hurt either of you." Vanellope explained as calmly as she could starring King Candy strait in the eye. King Candy frowned menacingly in return and turned back to Turbo who was still laying on the ground.

"Then where did all those bandages come from?" King Candy fussed looking down at Turbo with concern.

"For the uptenth time I am fine." Turbo responded sounding annoyed this time. "And for your information I was ran over." King Candy's eyes widened at this remark but he didn't press further, mainly because when he looked down at Turbo he noticed that his left pant leg was beginning to seep though with blood, apparently that fall he took reopened something.

"Aggh! Your leg!" King Candy yelped leaning down towards Turbo, completely forgetting the fact that Vanellope and Ralph where right behind him. Turbo looked down at his own leg at this remark his eyes widening when he saw. Vanellope and Ralph watched the scene from a reasonable distance noticing the reopened injury too.

"Oh that's _nothing_, just a flesh wound." Turbo joked grimly looking down at his own leg, I say Turbo joked but he really sounded quite nervous starring down at his bloodied leg. King Candy didn't seem amused at Turbo's statement as he crouched down and picked up Turbo's injured leg carefully and pulled the now soaked pant leg upward.

Meanwhile Ralph and Vanellope watched the pair carefully not sure what to say as King Candy fussed over Turbo, so they sat down and took some time to observe the cave around them, neither of them thought the King was suddenly going to bolt on them, so they let their guard down somewhat. the cave wasn't all that large, quite small actually, to one corner there was a sponge cake with candy wrappers on top of it, presumably the bed. Other then that there where some ledges obviously used as tables, and right at the center King Candy continued to tend to Turbo, seamlessly ignoring both Ralph and Vanellope for the moment. Turbo looked up past King Candy and caught Ralph's gaze.

"I don't think I could make it back with this leg." Turbo said bleakly letting out a sigh. "I have more explaining to do don't I?" Ralph nodded and leaned up against the back of the cave, seeming rather relaxed for the circumstances.

"I guess we'll just stay here for awhile then." Ralph replied.

**Oh how I love references, can't help but put some in each chapter. I feel like I should link the one in the last chapter, the thing about the cat at the end of the hall. Here I have the image that explains it somewhere.**

** . /6587e1fceeb99eb44115eb472a47 0238/tumblr_mjeiieaFfd1qd7zf7o1_ **

**There lets see if that works.**


	6. C5: Right mess I've gotten us into

**Authors note: Well this took longer then anticipated, oh well its here now. Anyway glad you're all liking the Turbo and King Candy interactions because there's likely be plenty of that as the story progresses, oh yeah and to the person who asked how I came up with the code breaking process which I like to call "the formation of a glitch" I'm not really sure I can give you a strait answer, one day I started thinking about how code might work in the game universe and before I knew it I had almost completely mapped out at theoretical process of coding, and who better to relay my ideas ****then Mr. Hacker himself? Honestly half the reason I started writing this was so I could get my idea of how code worked out there.**

After King Candy's initial panic calmed down he became overwhelmingly curious, and started asking questions to Turbo, who was now propped up against the wall of the cave having his leg looked at. Meanwhile Vanellope and Ralph where still waiting patiently on the other side of the room, watching King Candy's movements carefully if he where to try something. Despite Turbo's foul mood to each of them over the past few days he had somewhat earned their trust at this point for apparently not lying and not having tried and escaped, he was in someways, trust worthy. King Candy however was having a close eye kept on him by both Ralph and Vanellope out of distrust, mostly because they knew Turbo wouldn't be able to escape with that leg so they derived their attention else where. King Candy leaned towards Turbo and whispered something catching the racers attention.

"I repeat: What are they doing here?" King Candy asked speaking quietly enough for only the two of them to hear.

"In short they captured me and by pure luck I got them to take me back here." Turbo responded quickly he was beginning to feel quite faint. King Candy let a small frown onto his face at Turbo's response glancing at the warily at the pair by the entrance before turning back to Turbo.

"I less vague answer would be nice." King Candy complained making Turbo sigh in annoyance. By now they had caught Ralph and Vanellope's attention with their whispering and they where watching Turbo and King Candy carefully.

"Hows the leg? And you two can quit being so tense I'm not gonna come over and crush you or anything."Ralph said carefully after a few seconds, getting up from his sitting position and walking towards the pair Vanellope following closely behind. King Candy visibly tensed at Ralph's presence but at least didn't bolt looking up at the wrecker nervously.

"Why should I trust you? The moment I let my guard down you're likely to beat the frosting out of me." King Candy spat back in a attempt to intimidating but his fear was clearly showing. "Besides you must be here for a reason and if that's not finishing what the you started I honestly haven't a clue." Vanellope watched King Candy quizzically as he starred at her and Ralph, standing somewhat protectively over Turbo.

"We forced Turbo to tell us of you, and I came here to make sure that he was lying, unfortunately he wasn't." Vanellope replied rudely making both King Candy and Turbo scowl at her.

"And now we get thrown into the fungeon until this glitch kills us both painfully." Turbo dead panned catching everyone's attention, he wasn't exactly in the best of moods. Ralph made no comment and went to go sit down again, deciding to let Vanellope handle this. "And for your information the leg is not doing any better!" Turbo shouted after Ralph who disregarded him almost completely. This peaked Vanellope's curiosity and she looked over King Candy to get a better look at Turbo's leg. King Candy had rolled up the bottom of Turbo's stained pant leg and taken off his sock and shoe revealing a all too gruesome wound reopened and bleeding profoundly. Vanellope had taken a lot for her age, but she was still only nine and she visibly cringed when she saw the open wound.

"I hope you have something to stop the bleeding." Vanellope said putting a hand over her mouth before she could stop herself. something odd happened when she spoke to the pair, a flicker of pixels flashed over both King Candy and Turbo's appearance simultaneously, Turbo's scarlet red, King Candy's a shade of purple. 'I guess glitches are color coded, heh, coded.' Vanellope thought to herself as she watched the last few flickers of the glitch fade away. King Candy and Turbo seemed un phased by the phenomenon and went on as if it hadn't happened Turbo raising a eye brow at Vanellope's concern and King Candy turning to face her, scowling.

"No, and if you hadn't noticed we have another problem, the suns going down." King Candy stated pointing towards one of the holes near the ceiling where the light was in fact, fading. Vanellope took a quick glance upward to see for herself before turning back to King Candy.

"Alright, well don't you have anything to light this place up with?" Vanellope asked, the fact that King Candy called it a problem worried her, she didn't exactly want to spend the rest of the night in a cave, let alone a dark cave. King Candy twiddled his thumbs nervously.

"I know where to get what we need, bandages, light, but I'd have to go outside." King Candy replied. Turbo let out a audible groan of annoyance.

"I told you to keep stocked." Turbo complained from the ground catching King Candy's attention. King Candy just rolled his eyes and hunched over a bit more he wasn't planning on staying up after sunset, Vanellope however seemed interested.

"What do you have to go get?" Vanellope asked sounding genuinely curious. King Candy let out a exasperated sigh, as if she should know already, before he began listing things off.

"Well first of all if I had some fruit rollups and cotton candy I could use them for bandages, second of all there's this type of glowing candy that can be used for light." King Candy answered making Vanellope raise a eye brow looking at him curiously.

"And you know where to find all this?" Vanellope asked, she'd never heard of glowing candy, King Candy nodded in return. Vanellope pondered this for a moment, if she took King Candy out herself he wouldn't just bolt if Turbo was at stake, Vanellope was almost sure of that. "Well, what are we waiting for?" Vanellope decided. King Candy looked at her a bit shocked, he was pretty sure that they where not just going to let him walk off.

"Alright..." King Candy responded.

"Oh and I'll be coming with you." Vanellope added somewhat smugly. King Candy looked like he was going to protest but stopped himself when he remembered what kind of situation he was in.

"Very well." King Candy finally agreed right before he swiftly moved across the cave and began grabbing various items from the ledges, chief of them being a backpack made our of candy wrappers and liquorice. "We'll need these too." King Candy added reached up to a higher ledge and pulling down about four jars that looked like they where made of clear rock candy. Vanellope wondered how he managed to get a hold of those jars considering they weren't a natural phenomenon, perhaps stolen from somewhere. Meanwhile Turbo had somehow made it to his feet by leaning against the side of the wall, grabbing his discarded shoe and sock as he slowly made his way to the bed on the other side of the room, leaving small drops of crimson on the spot where he was laying. After King Candy had put the jars in the backpack he walked back over to Vanellope, looking quite determined, repeatedly glancing over to Turbo who was only now flopping down on the sponge cake bed, exhausted. Ralph had been watching the scene carefully, deciding wordlessly that he would let Vanellope go alone with King Candy, considering the circumstances, he wasn't really too pleased about it though.

"Shall we go then?" Vanellope said gesturing towards the exit. King Candy just nodded, this was the last thing he was expecting to happen to him today. The pair of them began making their way out of the cave though the short tunnel that Vanellope stumbled with while King Candy moved though the darker parts of the cave with practiced ease. Within a few seconds they both came out into the fading light of SugarRush, Vanellope was beginning to curse her games day and night cycle. King Candy began walking without word leaving Vanellope to catch up with him, he clearly knew exactly where he was going walking at a brisk pace, either that or he was eager to get this over with. They walked in silence for many moments, through much dense candied foliage until finally King Candy came to a very abrupt stop Vanellope almost bumping into him. Before Vanellope could even ask King Candy moved off to the side and towards a colorful bush, obviously cotton candy.

"Help me grab some of this!" King Candy ordered leaning down and grasping bunches of the cottony fluff, shoving it into his backpack. Vanellope hesitated for a moment before walking over to the bushes and leaning down besides King Candy giving him a nervous glance. King Candy gave no sign of acknowledgment and continued to grab clumps of fluff off the bush looking downward and nowhere else. They gathered all the cotton candy they needed and set off again, King Candy still leading. Again they walked in eerie silence until Vanellope tried to start up a conversation that is.

"You know, you could thank me for bringing Turbo out here." Vanellope stated out of the blue grabbing King Candy's attention. He didn't do much other then scowl at her though avoiding eye contact. Vanellope rolled her eyes, no reason to be so distant- wait, yeah actually there kind of was. Still she kept trying. "If it weren't for me he would definitely be locked up right now you know, everyone else wanted to lock him up without a second thought." King Candy let out a exasperated groaning sound.

"I am in no mood to talk."King Candy warned picking up his pace so Vanellope had to almost run to catch up with him. Vanellope just rolled her eyes in defeat and decided to stop pestering him for at least awhile, despite her duty as a princess/president she was very kind at heart, so much so that she was trying to befriend her enemy, someone who had helped make her life miserable for years. It didn't take long for them to get to a fruit rollup tree after that, it was very reminiscent of a willow tree having lengthy compacted fruit strips hanging down from the branches.

"I didn't even know there where fruit roll ups in this game." Vanellope said looking up at the large tree with interest. King Candy ignored her once again and moved hastily to grab the long strips from the tree, eager to finish getting the supplies he needed. Without order Vanellope moved up to help him jumping up and grabbing onto the flattened fruit and pulling it down, before quickly disposing them into King Candy's back pack.

"That should do for bandages." King Candy muttered once they where done.

"Hey I've got a question, what are the jars for?" Vanellope asked her curiosity getting the better of her, where they going to catch firefly's or something? King Candy rolled his eyes, annoyed.

"You'll find out soon, glitch." King Candy grumbled in return setting off again. Vanellope looked at King Candy curiously.

"You know." Vanellope said catching King Candy's attention, although he didn't show it. "I don't think you can really call me glitch anymore." Vanellope finished almost smugly. King Candy gave Vanellope a harsh side glance in return, conveniently a bright purple glitch flickering over his face.

"Well, I guess old habits die hard." King Candy retorted adding a small laugh at the end, maybe even sounding amused, before suddenly running ahead and out of Vanellope's view.

"Hey. Wait up!" Vanellope shouted after him following quickly. Vanellope only ran for a short while before rounding a rather sharp turn and almost came crashing into King Candy, who had stopped after a few yards. Once Vanellope had regained her balance she looked out from behind King Candy, a strange bluish light assaulting her eyes.

"What is that?" Vanellope asked before she could stop herself, what was in front of her and King Candy looked like a small pond but instead of water it was filled with this glowing blue ooze. Even weirder then that there was a long peanut brittle branch hanging over the pond and it looked like there where glowing blue gummy worms latched onto them.

"Glow worms." King Candy replied almost joyfully at finding what he needed. "And below them is what we need." Vanellope seemed quite confused, this was her game and she had never seen anything like this, this was a very unexplored part of SugarRush though. During her days of being exiled from society as a glitch she lived on the opposite side of DietCola mountain, she knew that side well this side however was a whole new game. However before Vanellope could ask more questions a tantalizing smell made it to her nose making her lose her train of thought, and it seemed to be coming from the pond. Vanellope creeped out from behind King Candy and took a few tentative steps towards the pool, enticed by the smell, smelt like raspberries.

"Why does it smell so good? Does it taste good too?" Vanellope asked sounding genuinely curious. King Candy let out a small smirk onto his face.

"Oh sure it smells good." King Candy said making Vanellope stop in her tracks and turn back to look at him. "I wouldn't get any in your mouth though." Vanellope raised a eye brow at this, curious.

"Why..?" Vanellope asked, everything in SugarRush was usually edible and tasted damn good too.

"Ever heard of vanilla extract? Same principle." King Candy explained. "Besides its not really candy in the first place." Now Vanellope was curious, and King Candy's knowing smirk wasn't helping. Vanellope glanced back and fourth between the pool and King Candy in confusion before It hit here, the way the goo was dripping from the worms above, how it_ wasn't _candy.

"Eww!" Vanellope yelped jumping back from the pool. "You didn't say we where collecting doody!" King Candy's smirk grew even larger.

"Well I don't think its technically 'doody' persay but I wouldn't eat it either way." King Candy replied chuckling to himself as he walked past Vanellope and leaned down at the edge of the glowing pool pulling out the jars from the back pack.

"So you use doody for light?" Vanellope asked still sounding somewhat revolted as she watched King Candy open a jar and scoop up some of the ooze from the pool.

"Well do you know anything else we could use?" King Candy muttered back somewhat sarcastically. Actually Vanellope could think of something, the lights in the castle that appeared to be glowing gum drops or birthday candles, but those where only in the more civilized areas of SugarRush and she was pretty sure they didn't spawn naturally anywhere in the wilder parts. Vanellope kept quiet as King Candy filled each of the jars he brought with the glowing residue making sure to get all of it off his hands before shoving the jars back into his back pack. The jars glowed exceptionally bright even under the wrappings of the backpack, Vanellope thought it made him look like a blue and purple light bug when he carried it on his back, but she didn't say anything. King Candy didn't waste a second when he started off for the cave at a brisk pace Vanelloep following behind.

Meanwhile back in the cave it had grown exceptionally dark and besides the faint light from the holes in the ceiling all Ralph could see was Turbo's glowing eyes from across the room, but even those where beginning to seem dimmer, maybe they faded when Turbo became tired or downcast. Either way his eyes where giving a whole new meaning to the phrase "The light has faded from your eyes" Ralph was beginning to feel quite sleepy too, even though he was pretty sure Vanellope and King Candy had only been gone not more then fifteen minutes. To keep himself awake he decided to start asking Turbo questions, he did have quite a few of them.

"So, uh." Ralph said catching Turbo's attention. "Nice place you got here...?" Turbo rolled his eyes, not answering him. Ralph visibly frowned at his stubbornness but decided to keep talking anyway, asking the first thing that came to mind. "Um, well I got question, why is there only one bed in here, does one of you sleep on the ground?" Ralph asked and almost immediately regretted from the harsh look Turbo gave him.

"Like pixels if I was hauling two of these things down here, besides I shared my thoughts and coding with him for years, may as well break any boundaries left." Turbo responded his voice oozing with something between annoyance and sarcasm. However before Ralph could reply the the sound of footsteps caught his attention. Shifting himself so he was facing the entrance Ralph watched King Candy and Vanellope come barreling through it seeming hurried.

"Back." Vanellope announced a bit unnecessarily as Turbo pushed himself into a sitting position and addressed the two of them.

"About time, I'm practically bleeding out over here." Turbo grumbled. King Candy didn't waste time as he slid his backpack off and pulled out the glowing jars that actually illuminated the room very well when he put them an various shelf's in the cave. Now that everyone could see the place felt a bit less like a cave and more like a actual living space, even if it was bathed in the strange blue light.

"Where did you get that stuff?" Ralph asked eying the jars curiously.

"Believe me, you don't want to know." Vanellope replied cringing a bit at the memory. Ralph gave Vanellope a questioning look but didn't press further. Once King Candy had placed the jars everywhere he immediately rushed over to Turbo and checked up on him. The cut on Turbo's leg had almost stopped bleeding by now and the blood around it was starting to dry, this didn't exactly put King Candy at ease though. Propping Turbo's leg up with one hand and pulling out the supplies he needed from the backpack with the other and set to work.

"Oh PixieSticks, Why didn't you elevate it while I was gone?" King Candy complained. Turbo rolled his eyes, sagging back down into the fluffy spongecake below him.

"Its not that bad." Turbo retorted closing his eyes, King Candy just scowled in return, getting to work by dabbing cotton candy on the wound to clean it. Meanwhile Vanellope had joined Ralph in sitting across the room sighing in relief as she got off her feet.

"Calhoun and Felix will be wondering where we are if we stay all night." Ralph said catching Vanellope's attention.

"We're all pooped, can't we just sleep here for a bit?" Vanellope almost whined leaning onto Ralph's arm. Ralph rolled his eyes playfully in return, sometimes he forgot it but she was still a child.

"I guess one night wouldn't hurt." Ralph replied, it would be a lie to say he wasn't also drained by the days events. They where both drawn out of their meager conversation by a yelping sound from across the room making them both look up.

"OW!" Turbo practically shrieked as he tried to yank away his leg from King Candy who kept a firm hand on it.

"If you would stop struggling it would hurt less." King Candy responded rather calmly while he held onto Turbo's leg. Turbo just glared back grinding his teeth, Candy was so lucky that he had these handcuffs on, hey speaking of handcuffs.

"Hey glitch!" Turbo yelled catching Vanellope's attention, who promptly frowned at him for the use of the word glitch. "Do you have the keys for these handcuffs, you know, just out curiosity?" Vanellope rolled her eyes and walked over to the pair of them, producing a key from her hoodie pocket.

"I don't think I should let you go though." Vanellope replied twiddling the key in her hand almost mockingly. Turbo frowned in return, hadn't she figured out that he wasn't going to run away yet? It was only logical to stay so far, he had been found out, that's it, game over if he managed to get away there would be search party's, wanted signs, rewards, no running away wasn't a smart option.

"Oh why not _glitch_, afraid I'll strangle you in your sleep?" Turbo responded mockingly flashing a cruel smile , Vanellope just looked at him disapprovingly. King Candy meanwhile was keeping out of the conversation, occupying himself on fixing up Turbo's leg best he could, occasionally shooting nervous glances at the two of them.

"Frankly yes." Vanellope dead panned earning her another scowl from Turbo. "But I think I'll take off the handcuffs anyway." Turbo looked up at Vanellope a bit shocked, he honestly wasn't expecting her to comply, none the less he held out his cuffed hands anyway, eager to get them off. Vanellope promptly stuck her key into the lock on Turbo's cuffs letting them fall off with a click. Turbo stretched out his arms almost immediately, his shoulders had been in one place for far too long. Vanellope picked up the discarded handcuffs Turbo rubbed his wrists, if he didn't down right hate her he might have thanked her.

"And, finished." King Candy said catching Turbo's attention, he had finished bandaging up Turbo's leg with the candy effectively stopping any bleeding. If it weren't for the programming that made any character in SugaRush immune to any bad effects candy might carry, it would probably be doing a whole lot more bad then good, sugar wasn't exactly good for open wounds. "The pain should stop soon enough."

"Oh and one more thing." Vanellope said right before she pulled the handcuffs out from her pocket and suddenly snapped them in place around King Candy's wrists before he could pull away. "Fair trade don't you think?" King Candy looked at his hands baffled and looked like he was about to complain when Vanellope left first trotting off to the other side of the room and out of mutual earshot. King Candy kept looking from the handcuffs to Turbo in dismay, he looked so displeased that Turbo was beginning to think he might throw a fit, however all he did was sit down next to Turbo after a few more seconds of silent rage, looking none too pleased.

"Oh I can believe she did that!" King Candy muttered angrily to Turbo.

"Yeah well get used to it, we're likely to be chained up completely when we get to the castle." Turbo replied moving his leg a bit to make sure the bandages where doing their job, they weren't really in fact they where quite lose. King Candy sighed annoyance, his messy patch up job would have to do until they got to the castle.

"Well you're welcome for the patch up job." King Candy responded as he grabbed some candy wrappers and threw them around himself, giving a quick glance over to Ralph and Vanellope. Ralph was laying on his back looking like he was about to fall asleep while Vanellope was curled up on his stomach snoozing away. Turbo muttered something like a thanks as he watched the pair across the room from them too, peaking out from behind King Candy. The two of them stayed silent like that for awhile, just sort of sitting in mutual silence.

"Right mess I've gotten us into haven't I?" Turbo said catching King Candy's attention, who promptly turned around to face him after hearing that remark.

"I'm sure you couldn't have done anything to prevent it." King Candy replied. "Could you have? You still haven't told me the whole story of how you got here yet." Turbo didn't answer avoiding King Candy's gaze, it was starting to get dark again, the glowing gel/feces didn't last that long after being taken away from the pool. The conversation slid into silence after that, and suddenly the cave wall became very interesting to Turbo.

"I'm going to sleep." Turbo stated after what must have been a quarter of a hour as he scooted away from King Candy, pulling one of the candy wrappers around himself. King Candy scowled and grasped onto Turbo's shoulder before he could lay down, effectively stopping him.

"You still have some explaining to do." King Candy stated firmly pulling Turbo closer again. Turbo gave out a defeated sigh pulling the wrappers closer around himself.

"Fine, but listen closely because I don't want to have to repeat myself." Turbo replied and over the next few minutes he explained to King Candy what had happened in more detail, from the being run over to the waking up in a hospital bed and getting a gun pointed at his head.

"Rough few days huh?" King Candy chuckled nervously once Turbo had finished, trying to lighten the mood a bit. Turbo just scowled in return before laying down again.

"Well I'm going to sleep." Turbo muttered closing his eyes and willing sleep to come quickly. King Candy decided not to pester Turbo further and laid down himself cursing the way he was going to have to sleep because of the handcuffs, his shoulders where going to ache to no end.

"Goodnight Turbs." King Candy responded shutting his own eyes. Turbo didn't reply for some time leading King Candy to believe that he was either asleep or wasn't going to, that is until that is Turbo rolled over to face him.

"G'night Candy." Turbo said closing his eyes again. King Candy couldn't help but smile back.

"I'd hug you if it weren't for the handcuffs." King Candy chuckled in return, and just like that Turbo's frown was back.

"Please refrain from even trying to." Turbo replied sternly, this only made King Candy smile more however, inadvertently making Turbo frown more. Turbo rolled over again without a second word, his warning however may as well have gone unheard as a few seconds late he felt something press up against his back, which was without a doubt King Candy. But Turbo didn't push him away or, complain for that matter, probably because he didn't have the heart to, and instead fell asleep letting King Candy cuddle up to him.

**Excuse me while I vomit from how fluffy I accidentally made that last bit, gah how does this shit come from my own head. Oh and, uh, Happy Easter.**


	7. C6: Farewell, ditch under the mountain

**Authors note: In case you hadn't noticed this fic took about a month long hiatus thanks to several bouts of writers block on my part, but no matter how long it takes for me to write each chapter I probably will keep working on this fic until the end, which I do have planned out by the way, and don't worry its many many chapters away you have no idea how much content I want to stuff into this thing. Either way since this chapter took so long for me to write out some parts of it are probably off, as in I went over this thing so many times its probably not even recognizable from its original state. Anyway its here now that's for sure, if a bit "off".**

Slowly Turbo came into consciousness, for what reason he wasn't sure because when he opened his eyes all he could see was a faint moonlight coming from the holes in the ceiling and he was pretty sure it must be sometime in the early morning hours. In fact if he strained his ears he could just hear the JellyBean bugs chirping somewhere outside, the SugarRush equivalent of crickets. His leg did ache quite a bit, maybe that's what woke him up, video game characters healed fast, but not fast enough to be completely fine in just a few hours. Turbo's eyes eventually adjusted to the darkness taking and he quick look around, stifling a yawn.

It looked like Ralph and Vanellope where asleep, Vanellope curled up on Ralph's stomach like a common house pet. A devious grin made its way onto Turbo's face, oh this was just perfect, this was his chance.

Slowly Turbo sat up careful to make no noise what so ever, true Ralph and Vanellope where only a few feet from the exit but they where clearly asleep, Ralph snoring so loudly that he was beginning to think that maybe that's what woke him up.

Turbo quickly formulated a plan in his head, get out of the cave, get out of SugarRush and then disappear in game central station for awhile, simple. He wouldn't have the benefit of being marked off as dead, but he could disappear fairly easily none the less, he doubted the four that knew about him would tell the rest of game central station, and without everyone's help, what could they do to find him? Search every deserted corner of game central station themselves? ha, he'd like to see them try.

However when Turbo went to stand he was rather suddenly reminded of another factor that he had forgotten to calculate into his plan, King Candy.

A small snore from behind him made his blood run cold, momentarily forgetting about his kingly counter part. whipping himself around and looking down on the bed he relaxed substantially when he realized who it was, although he was immediately plagued with a new type of worry, setting himself down on the edge of the sponge bed again because it was so difficult to stand.

This put a pretty big damper on Turbo's in truth hurried and ill conceived plan. He couldn't take King Candy with him out of SugarRush, not without getting into the code vault and at least overriding the glitch control, something he had never even tried to do, although he had a good idea on how to and it sure as hell sounded a lot easier then actually tackling his or King Candy's undoubtedly ill code. And if he did stay in SugarRush with King Candy finding them would be made ten times easier for the group that knew about them, not to mention King Candy was now restricted by handcuffs that they would have to get off some way or another if he wanted to have the use of his hands, probably with a rock, he wasn't really for pick pocketing the glitch while she slept.

Slowly Turbo came to a conclusion, he would have to leave King Candy behind and come back for him later, this was his only chance before they where both locked up for good with no hope of escape. Or at least that's what his battered glitched head was telling him, glitches sometimes did have a ill effect on the repentance's cognitive functions, mainly ability to reason, often without the character in question even realizing it. Turbo was aware of this fact, he had seen glitches before, but he had never been on the receiving end of one so severe.

If he could just get to another code vault and see what was going on, not knowing how things where doing from a code point of view was driving him mad. speaking of driving maybe he could hijack a kart before he left, the idea of getting behind the wheel for the first time in months was a tempting one. the feel of the engine revving to life, the way his old kart would handle on those tu- wait, getting distracted here, escape yes, escape, bringing a kart along would be a bad idea anyway they where too noisy and cumbersome.

Gradually Turbo pushed himself off the bed again into a standing position, wincing a bit when he put weight on his injured leg. Saying his silent goodbyes to King Candy, he would find him again and fix this glitch, he had to, Turbo started to walk off. Emphasis on started because before he could even take the first step he felt a tug on the back of his jump suit, nearly scaring the filling out of him for the second time that night, a bright red flurry of pixels momentarily obscuring his face.

Flipping his himself around immediately and looking down he saw that King Candy, in his sleep no doubt, had grasped onto the back of his jumpsuit and was pulling him back down onto the sponge bed.

Turbo watched, baffled, King Candy smiling blissfully when he pulled Turbo back down onto the bed with him, settling them both in under the candy wrappers after a few seconds of unconscious shifting. Turbo let out a shaky, nervous breath, watching King Candy carefully if he where to suddenly wake up. It was moments before Turbo even dared to shift his position so he wasn't laying on his injured leg, all the while watching Candy snooze away blissfully unaware of Turbo's previous intentions of leaving him. Part of him was yelling 'damned pun spewing candy man i'm only trying to do whats best for both of us! why does he have to complicate things' yet he didn't even try to move, and instead just starred blankly into the darkness.

"I can't leave." Turbo mumbled after a few seconds. King Candy would be hopeless without him, he didn't know a thing about code and when Ralph and Vanellope woke up to find him gone there's no doubt he would be asked questions, questions he would have no answers to, and as naive as it was to care for King Candy's well being, Turbo did anyway.

"I just _can't_." Turbo repeated to himself shutting his eyes again, he would just go back to sleep for now, there would be other chances to fix their code, they had a couple of months at least before things would start to get _really_ nasty if he knew his glitches.

* * *

It was the crack of dawn, the artificial sun just barely peaking and the wilderness of the game known as SugarRush, it was quite peaceful really and not a sound was heard, the various candyfied animals just beginning to wake up, quite nice really. Well, actually I take that back, not a sound was heard until the whooshing sound of a hover engine suddenly broke the placid silence. Zooming over the wilds on a Hero's Duty hover board where both Felix and Calhoun, each of them scanning the landscape thoroughly. Needless to say the two of them had gotten increasingly worried when the group sent to look for King Candy hadn't come back after the sun started to go down and as soon as it came back up again they set off to find them.

"I'm not seeing anything Tammy!" Felix shouted over the sound of the wind trying to keep his balance of the hover board best he could.

"Well would you rather go back to castle? We have to at least try and find them." Calhoun responded her gaze unwavering from the grounds below. They both had agreed before hand with Ralph and Vanellope that if the three of them where to take too long in their search they would come after them, even though the chances of actually finding them in the large expanse of SugarRush where quite minuscule considering the fact that the place they where looking for probably didn't have a big neon flashing sign over it that read "Turbo's lair".

Felix just nodded in return to Calhoun, they had set off only half an hour ago and both of them hadn't slept much the night before. They flew in silence for what must have been another ten minutes when Calhoun very suddenly steered the hover board downward towards the side of diet cola mountain.

"I think I see something!" Calhoun shouted to a very shocked looking Felix at their sudden descent, clinging onto his wife's leg. Sure enough when Felix looked out from behind Calhoun and focused on the base of diet cola mountain he did see what he thought looked like a small cave, and for your information it did not have a big neon sign over it. After a few dodges and weaves through some of the taller candied foliage Calhoun finally slowed down and landed her hover board skillfully in the middle of a clearing.

"Turbo did mention something about a cave." Felix remarked hopping off the hover board eagerly. Calhoun followed closely behind eying the cave with what might be called disdain.

"Lets check it out." Calhoun replied moving forward and unholstering her gun, for safety measures of course. Felix followed suit, walking at a brisk pace to keep up with Calhoun. The two of them sneaked up to the entrance of the cave and looked down into the darkness below, deciding whether or not they should enter.

"Alright on my signal, we charge." Calhoun instructed. Felix was about to nod when he noted the use of the word "charge"

"Wait- Charge? I don't think that's entirely neces-" Felix was cut off.

"Charge!" Calhoun yelled holding up her gun before dashing off into the cave followed momentarily by a very flustered looking Felix. The two of them ran through the narrow tunnel with such speeds that it was miracle they didn't trip, bursting into a lighter part of the cave after a few seconds of impenetrable darkness. Felix didn't have much time to observe his surroundings before they where sent into chaos by Calhoun who's dramatic and loud entrance inevitably woke up more then one of the inhabitants of the cave.

Vanellope awoke with such a start that she involuntarily glitched herself off of Ralph's stomach and onto the caves floor landing gracefully, looking around with alarm until she spotted Calhoun and Felix.

Unfortunately Vanellope's glitch was not the only one triggered by the noise, Turbo and King Candy awoke to the sound too, both of them frantically sitting up in a flurry of candy wrappers and looking towards the door, purple and red glitches flashing together. Felix peered out from behind his wife just in time to see the occurrence of Turbo and King Candy waking up, immediately recognizing the conglomeration of red pixels to be Turbo. Both King Candy and Turbo reformed soon enough and starred wide eyed at the pair in the entrance, Calhoun slowly lowering her gun.

"Well son of a gun, you weren't lying." Calhoun muttered out her gaze fixed on King Candy, who visibly stiffened under her gaze twiddling his fingers nervously.

"Of course I wasn't lying." Turbo replied gruffly, although there was a hint of "I told you so" in his voice. Calhoun frowned slightly in return, no one liked to be proven wrong.

"Uh guys." Vanellope said catching their attention. "We might want to wake up Ralph before we continue this conversation." As if on cue Ralph gave a huge snore shifting himself slightly, seemingly oblivious to the world around him. Calhoun raised a eye brow at how he had managed to stay asleep this whole time but didn't question it, instead she walked over to the sleeping lump known as Ralph and gave him a light kick in the side, nothing that would hurt. Tensing up mid snore Ralph's eyes fluttered open taking in the sight of Calhoun and Vanellope leaning over him.

"Shoulda known you'd come and get us when we didn't show." Ralph muttered after a few seconds, glancing over to Turbo and King Candy briefly to make sure they hadn't run off in the night or something, his precautions where even more justified then he knew.

"Mornin StinkBrain." Vanellope replied grinning. Ralph smiled in return, not bothering to retort as he pushed himself upwards.

Meanwhile Felix had walked over to Turbo and King Candy, Turbo still sitting in the sponge cake bed, King Candy up on his feet and stretching slightly, disproving of how much his shoulders ached because he slept on them funny. Felix's eyes immediately wandered to the candied bandages on Turbo's leg and his blood stained pant leg indicating a semi fresh wound.

"Oh my land how did that happen?" Felix asked putting a hand over his mouth. Turbo was about to answer with something along the lines of 'none of your business' when his gaze flickered over too King Candy, who averted his gaze, guiltily. Oh yeah. Turbo thought blearily. The mess with his leg was kind of Candy's fault, although he had fixed him up, no hard feelings.

"I uh, tripped." Turbo muttered in response keeping his still sleepy gaze on King Candy. Felix gave a small sympathetic smile.

"You know I would fix it for you, if not for, you know..." Felix muttered in return. Turbo knew what he meant without any of them saying it, he was a glitch at the moment, a piece of malformed code that's sentient and alive when it shouldn't be, Felix's hammer would do about as much good for them both as a regular hammer would. You see certain attributes of the game world didn't work on glitched characters, like power ups or health kits, re spawns where usually pretty solid though, key world usually.

Vanellope's case was special though, you see her glitch wasn't as bad as it made out to be, in fact it was just a small texture error. You see Vanellope was actually designed to have teleportation abilities where she would disappear in a flurry of green sparkles and reappear somewhere else, quite the advantage on the track. All Turbo had to do to make her _seem_ like glitch a was get rid of the textures for that certain ability, the reason behind this being to give a reason to the rest of the inhabitants of SugarRush _why _she couldn't race, albeit he did take it a bit too far in making it almost uncontrollable for her, causing the game to actually register her as a glitch so she couldn't leave SugarRush, but that was fixed with the reset, the texture error still remained though.

The meager conversation between the three drifted into awkward silence after that, Felix leaving to go check on Ralph and the others. Turbo immediately addressed King Candy as soon as Felix was out of mutual ear shot, knowing without asking what was on his mind, sharing thoughts for fifteen years did have its advantages in getting to know the person.

"It wasn't your fault you know, you couldn't have known any better." Turbo insisted referring to his busted leg, catching King Candy's attention. "Besides you fixed me up, debt repaid, if there ever was one to repay" Turbo was really trying to sound sympathetic, but it came out more or less like uncertain mumbled his King Candy's general direction. King Candy twiddled his fingers nervously, it looked like Turbo's words of condolence hadn't done much to put him at ease.

"If I hadn't panicked you would be fine." King Candy replied evasively, making Turbo scowl at him, dammit he could be so stubborn some times.

"Listen you've done more then enough to repay whatever debt to me you think you have, so stop blaming yourself." Turbo almost growled out, he knew Candy was putting himself down over hurting him and it was driving him mad. King Candy was a bit taken aback at the aggressiveness of Turbo's statement stepping back slightly. "So for the love of code stop beating yourself up about it, I know you are."

"I'm not beating myself up." King Candy responded matter of factually, standing as tall and strait as he could in a show of false confidence. Turbo rolled his eyes.

"Liar." Turbo spat out, grinning ever so slightly when King Candy frowned even more, knowing that he had hit a nerve. King Candy gave out a reluctant sigh, caving.

"Fine, maybe I am, but I'll try to put it behind me if stop mentioning it." King Candy replied gritting his teeth, it was bad enough that he had to look at Turbo's injury, he didn't need to talk about it too.

"The happiest." Turbo grinned, he knew that despite King Candy's disgruntled and almost angry expression he wasn't really all that mad at him, he never was and sometimes he just needed a little persuasion to say what needs to be said. "Now help me to my feet, We're probably going have to get going soon."

* * *

Almost half an hour later the six of them where making their way down a narrow pathway somewhere off to the side of a race track, their destination being the castle of course. Vanellope and Felix where leading the way Calhoun and Ralph bringing up the rear, King Candy and Turbo mushed in the middle. Turbo was managing to keep up with everyone despite his bad leg, he couldn't even sling a arm around King Candy's shoulder because as soon as she could Calhoun snapped another pair of handcuffs around his wrists, much to his displeasure. The going was still slow though, they had just only now made their way to the more populated areas of SugarRush and out of the wilderness.

"Hurry up, game hours are gonna be starting soon!" Vanellope reminded picking up her pace slightly. Vanellope was right, if they didn't hurry up Felix, Ralph and Calhoun might just not make it back to their games in time for quarter alert. Turbo despite not giving a rats ass about whether or not everyone made it back to their precious games in time did pick up his pace slowly but surely limping his way along the path.

"Hey do you guys hear something?" Ralph suddenly asked looking around the area and the racing track next to them. The rest of the company immediately starting skimming the area with their eyes and ears looking for this noise Ralph had mentioned, which Vanellope quickly identified it as the sound of race karts, and it sounded like they where approaching fast. And of course that meant that someone must be driving said race karts. Vanellope immediately turned around to face King Candy and Turbo who looked like they had just made the same realization starring wide eyed at the track next to them.

"Quick, you two get in those bushes!" Vanellope ordered the pair pointing at some candied bushes off to the side of the track. Turbo and King Candy didn't hesitate to comply King Candy grabbing Turbo's wrist and dragging him into the bushes as quickly as the two of them could manage. True to Vanellope's suspicions not ten seconds later three brightly colored karts whizzed past them and Vanellope was beginning to think they where in the clear when suddenly the three karts did a complete u-turn back towards the four of them. The three racers driving said karts parked themselves skillfully in front of the group and didn't hesitate to hop out of their karts and address them. The group of Sugar Racers consisted of Swizzle, Taffyta, and CandleHead that where probably on their way to the starting line of the royal race way to await the first quarter alert of the day.

"Hey Vanellope!" CandleHead chimed waving happily at the four of them, Taffyta and Swizzle also giving their acknowledgment to the whole group, the ones that they could see at least. The four of them waved back a tad nervously as the smaller racer's approached.

"What are you guys doing around here, Shouldn't you all be back at your own games?" Taffyta asked sounding more curious and concerned then anything as she peered at the group.

"Um, yeah, we got a little caught up in something, they where just heading back to their games now." Vanellope quickly supplemented, Felix and Ralph nodding in agreement while Calhoun eyed the group of SugarRacers carefully.

"Oh, well you guys better hurry up, the arcade opens in twenty minutes." Swizzle responded casually. Meanwhile Turbo and King Candy having shoved themselves into some unfortunately very sticky bushes where holding their breath in uneasy anticipation, being extremely careful not to make a sound. However the pair became increasingly torn whether or not to "fight or flight" so to speak when the group of three SugarRush racers casually walked closer and closer to their hiding place, unbeknownst to what was actually lurked in the bush they took for granted. Uneasiness was beginning to show in Ralph, Felix, Calhoun, and Vanellope too as they watched the group of SugarRush racers step so closely to Turbo and King Candy, so much so that Vanellope felt it necessary to interrupt.

"Hey!" Vanellope suddenly said catching her fellow Sugar Racer's attention. "Could you do me a favor and drive us to the entrance to game central station? I kinda left my kart back at the royal race way" Swizzle and CandleHead nodded in agreement, seeing nothing amiss in Vanellopes request. Taffyta however was starting to become suspicious, why where they all out here in the first place? And why did they all look so nervous?

"Yeah sure, you, and Felix can ride on my kart, and Taffyta and CandleHead can take Ralph and Ms, Calhoun." Swizzle replied enthusiastically.

"Ah, actually Swizzle I need to stay out here and finish some things before game hours start, I'll meet you all by the Royal Race way in time for first quarter alert though." Vanellope interrupted. Taffyta raised a eye brow.

"Why do you need to stay out here?" Taffyta asked almost accusingly, she was mere inches from King Candy and Turbo now and if she where to extend her hand downward and grasp she would probably pull one of them out of the bush like a rabbit out of a hat. Turbo had closed his eyes, not out of fear but because of the fact that they glowed, even more so when his adrenaline ran high. King Candy meanwhile was starring wide eyed up through the foliage, one continues thought going through his head. 'Don't glitch. Don't glitch. Don't glitch. For the love of sugar don't glitch!' Turbo was having similar thoughts, but as luck would have it his own "pixlexia" wasn't bothering him so much now.

"Oh, I- um, while you see the thing is." Vanellope stuttered searching for a reasonable explanation, damn Taffyta and her devious curiosity. Consequently Vanellope glanced towards the bush that contained Turbo and King Candy several times while trying to conjure up a explanation other then the truth. And unfortunately Taffyta took notice of this.

"Why are you all so fascinated with this cotton candy bush?" Taffyta asked sounding curious, looking down into the bush where she swore she saw something red before her snooping was conveniently interrupted by CandleHead.

"Come on Taffyta we don't have time to be beating around the bush, literally." CandleHead interrupted. "Game hours are in fifteen minutes!" Taffyta looked back and fourth between CandleHead and bush for a few seconds, torn, before finally nodding her head in agreement.

"Y-Yeah, its probably nothing, sure Vanellope we can drive them for you." Taffyta responded still sounding slightly curious but putting aside her suspicions for a moment in light of their dwindling time.

Vanellope nodded, relieved as she gestured for the rest of the company that currently wasn't cowering a bush to go with her fellow racers. The three went with some reluctance, after all leaving Vanellope with two proven dangerous characters wasn't exactly high on there list, still getting their games put out of order because they weren't present wasn't either, and besides the odds where heavily against Turbo and King Candy if they where to try something, Vanellope was safe-ish.

"You be careful now!" Felix shouted somewhat nervously to Vanellope as they left, Vanellope giving a small wave back, none of them dared to say more after that, for fear of arousing unwanted suspicion from the SugarRush racers, who wasted no time in getting everyone situated on the back of their karts and then speeding off leaving for the entrance to game central station as fast as they could. A few seconds after the karts where out of sight Vanellope heard some shuffling in the bush next to her followed by the unmistakable fizzling wobbly sound of pixels being disoriented and then put back together.

"Are they gone yet?" A exasperated sounding voice from the bush questioned, whether it belonged to Turbo or King Candy Vanellope couldn't really tell because they sounded so alike, but she assumed Turbo because of how critical the question sounded, if there was one difference between Turbo and King Candy it was that one was often grimly serious while the other could be bubbly and optimistic.

"Coast is clear." Vanellope responded. "I assume you heard all that?" Seconds later both Turbo and King Candy scrambled out of the cotton candy bush, a bit more dirty then they where but nothing noticeable considering how grimy they where in the first place.

"That was too close." Turbo grunted lifting himself to his feet with some difficulty, King Candy nodding in agreement looking slightly shaken, the past day and a half had all been pretty nerve wracking for him, and nearly having even _more_ people discover his and Turbo's existence had been a extremely stress inducing experience for him.

"Too close indeed." Vanellope agreed, she didn't even want to think about what might happen if anyone found out about Turbo or King Candy's existence, there would be problems to say the least. "alright lets shake a leg looks like I have to take you two back to the castle myself."

Something clicked in Turbo's head when Vanellope said that, something that should have clicked a long time ago.

Let's think about how lenient Vanellope had been with Turbo and King Candy thus far, it was likely that they wouldn't be completely chained up and rather just put in a cell of some sort, one which maybe they could escape from and get to the code vault. Maybe that was wishful thinking but you couldn't blame a sprite for having a little hope. If he did get into the code vault though, he likely wouldn't screw with much else other then his own and King Candy's code.

You see it had been a amazing feat of luck that him and King Candy had even taken SugarRush in the first place, but now characters would definitely notice if SugarRush suddenly went under new management. Word of what had happened in SugarRush had spread like wildfire in game central station, King Candy being Turbo, Vanellope being the rightful ruler, and how the cybugs had almost destroyed it. If he even could retake SugarRush and get the complete obedience from everyone inside the game, which wouldn't be easy either it took him months to code that the first time, there was no way he could keep the rest of the arcade out. But stopping him and Candy's code from dissipating into nothing was definitely a viable and practical option.

Turbo momentarily grimaced at the reminder of the fact that retaking SugarRush would be near impossible, and it was likely that there was little he could do to stop the glitch from ruling, short of out right killing her somehow and facing the undoubtedly large consequences. Turbo was a long term solution kind of sprite, always thinking one step ahead, or at least he had been in the past couple of decades, some mistakes early on in his life taught him to be much for careful. that was the main reason he hadn't tried to kill anyone yet, because in the long run, that was a immensely bad idea.

In fact he had a mind to do the exact opposite.

Snapping himself out of his thoughts Turbo couldn't help but grin slightly and with a flick of his wrist he gestured down the road for them to start moving.

"Lead the way." Turbo practically purred to Vanellope, invoking odd looks from both King Candy and Vanellope herself in his direction, he honestly didn't care at the moment though, for the first time in months him and Candy seemed to have a chance.

* * *

The walk to the castle was fairly uneventful, and their hastened pace made it so that they where at the thankfully unguarded gates in no time. Vanellope ushered them in without hesitation constantly stealing nervous glances around the area for anyone.

Thankfully the castle was rather dead at this hour because most of the inhabitants of SugarRush where down at the Royal Race way, and probably wondering where there president was. At least she wasn't currently having any problems with Turbo or King Candy, you know like them trying to bash her head in or something, she visibly cringed at the memory the fact that the offending parties where right in front of her not helping. Speaking of them being right in front of her they happened to be looking at her expectantly, oh right she was kind of in charge right now.

"Follow me." Vanellope ordered, she had prepared a place specifically to hold Turbo and possibly King Candy the day before and she now intended to use it for just that. They made their way into the castle through the main gates leading them directly into the throne room. The first thing that was apparent to Vanellope's "guests" was the change of decor, the main theme of the area had gone from a light salmon as King Candy called it to a mix of just about every different color in the spectrum with perhaps a bit more mint green. Turbo barely even noticed the change, after all he would have never even coded the decor from its original state if King Candy hadn't insisted on doing a re-haul of the entire castle on the grounds of "It would help them keep up the king look" King Candy however visually disapproved of the change looking around the now almost rainbow room with something that might be called disdain.

"I see you've made some changes." King Candy sneered catching Vanellope's attention, who was at first confused until she remembered how pink the castle was when she "inherited" it.

"Yes, well pink isn't really my favorite color." Vanellope teased giving the pair behind her a mocking smile.

"Oh you know full well that was salmon!" King Candy snapped in return, glaring daggers at Vanellope, he probably would have said more too if Turbo hadn't suddenly slapped a hand over his mouth, consequently dragging his other hand with it thanks to the handcuffs. King Candy immediately turning his attention to gray racer at his side.

"Shut it." Turbo hissed barely loud enough for the former king by his side to hear. King Candy did "shut it" but only because he had forgotten about the decor for the moment in favor of being confused by Turbo's actions, he seemed awfully critical, well in truth he was always critical but that was beyond the point. "Now." Turbo continued to Vanellope who was looking at the pair quizzically. "I believe game hours are in five minutes give or take so we might want to hurry up, wouldn't want this precious game to get unplugged all because its president didn't show." Vanellope blinked, baffled at Turbo's choice of words, odd that he was being so civil to her all the sudden, there was barely any sarcasm or spite in his voice at all.

"Of course, follow me." Vanellope responded, composing herself, though she was now plagued with a new wave of suspicion towards Turbo. She then lead her prisoners so to speak through the many hallways of the castle as quickly as they could manage, however when they came to the turn off to the dungeon Vanellope completely ignored it and kept walking. King Candy and Turbo looked at her slightly puzzled, but kept following her none the less, stealing a wary glance back at the stair way that lead down to the dungeon. If they weren't going down there, where we're they going?

Their question was quickly answered when Vanellope abruptly stopped in front of a door that looked like it belonged to one of the guests quarters, in fact it said so on door. Engraved on the doorway in large letters where the words "Guest room #6" Turbo raised a eye brow at Vanellope, expecting some explanation as to why they where here but she only ignored him pulling a large key out of her pocket. That's when they noticed the large lock on the door that Vanellope promptly stuck her key into and turned. Turbo and King Candy watched with muffled curiosity as Vanellope opened the the doorway in front of them and gestured for them to enter, obviously impatient to get moving. The pair gave her a uncertain glance before stepping into the room.

"Oh yes and before I go." Vanellope stated making both sprites turn around to face her again, curiously. "Let me take those off for you." Vanellope jumped over to King Candy and in one swift motion unlocked his hand cuffs pocketing them quickly, doing the same with Turbo right before glitching out of reach. "Now if you don't mind I've got a race to attend." Vanellope added, satisfied. Before King Candy or Turbo could make any sort of move either against Vanellope or to explore their surroundings she shut the door and a distinctive clicking sound signified it being locked. Turbo blinked, slightly unsettled before he took the time to take in his surroundings.

"Well, if I do say myself this is a step up from the dungeon." Turbo heard King Candy say from beside himself.

**That ending felt a bit rushed to me, but hey you can't really be the judge of your own work. That's really the main reason I'm posting this stuff publicly.**


End file.
